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SERMONS 



BY 



REV. OCTAVIUS PERINCHIEF. 



EDITED BIT 

CHARLES LANMAN. 




WILLIAM BALLANTYNE. 

WASHINGTON. 

1869. 



3X5"^ t*7 



PRELIMINARY. 



For the information of the reader, it has been thought 
proper to submit the following correspondence :— 

Georgetown, D. C, February 22, 1869. 

My dear Sir : 

The news of your intended departure from St. John's 
Parish, has filled the hearts of your numerous friends 
here with mingled feelings of regret and pleasure. With 
regret, because we are to be deprived of your rare and 
admirable preaching and your delightful companionship ; 
but with pleasure, because, in your new and more im- 
portant sphere of duty, it is to be hoped your health 
will be fully restored. 

In view of the impending separation, and as the self- 
appointed representative of your Georgetown friends, I 
desire to make a proposition. What say you to placing 
in my hands a collection of your Sermons, selected from 
those you have preached in St. John's Church, for the 
purpose of allowing them to be printed in a volume, for 
the gratification and comfort of your parishioners and 
others, who can appreciate the priceless teachings of the 
Bible when presented in their simplicity and power? 
We, whose affections you have so completely won, 



4 PRELIMINARY. 

would fain retain in our keeping, in a tangible shapes 
some of the words we have heard from your lips, and 
you must not deny the privilege we claim. 

Devotedly your friend, 

Charles Lanman. 

Rev. Octavtus Perinchief, 

Rector of St. Johns Parish. 

Georgetown, D. C, February 23, 1 869. 
My dear Mr. Lanman : 

I hardly know what to say in reply to your letter of 
the 22d. Of the making of books there is no end. Of 
some books it would appear that they had better never 
have been made. Possibly, however, to the poorest 
book attaches at least some local value— and if it fill only 
a local sphere it may not have been made wholly in vain* 
I would gladly leave with the people of St. Johns some 
memorial of my ministry among them. It is gratifying 
to me, to know that you and others desire it, and yet I 
am afraid I have little that is worthy of the object. My 
people have been toward me peculiarly indulgent, and 
I cannot help thinking my Sermons derive more value 
from that consideration than from any merit of their 
own. Still, I could not desire to go away feeling I had 
been speaking words of comfort and instruction, or of 
warning, which had taken no root in their hearts — and 
as I would like to live in their memories, and hope that 



PRELIMINARY. 5 

some thought I may have imparted may live in their 
lives, I do not see how I can do better, than to set aside 
a critical judgment and yield to your wishes. 

To many of my people I am under special obligations. 
These two years leave me indebted to you all. But, if 
God shall bless you through any word or act of mine, — 
if, through this volume you propose, He shall continue 
to bless you with spiritual riches in Jesus Christ, and 
at last count us worthy to stand together upon the 
shores of another and a better life, — then we shall all 
be rewarded, and they who have sown and they who 
have reaped shall rejoice together. That so it may be 
is the earnest prayer of 

Your friend and brother, 

0. Perinchief. 

To Charles Lanman, Esq. 

The Sermons which follow were taken from a large 
collection equally valuable; they are given without any 
method in their arrangement, and precisely as they 
were delivered from the pulpit; and the Editor only 
regrets that the whole could not at this time be printed. 



SERMONS. 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD. 

John 10: 16. — And other sheep I have which are not of this fold — them 
also I must bring — and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold 
and one shepherd. 

It very frequently happens in the life of Christ that 
He made the ordinary incidents of ordinary providence 
the vehicle in which to convey His instruction. Action 
and thought to Him were spontaneous. He did not go 
out of His way to find occasion, or illustration. He 
accepts the blind boy at the road side, or a lily at His 
feet. It is probable that He uttered the discourse con- 
tained in this chapter in the temple, or near the temple, 
where He and His hearers could see the folds which 
contained the sheep brought up for sacrifice. The keeper 
opened the door to the shepherd, to whom the sheep 
belonged. Any other would have to climb over and he 
would be but a thief and a robber. Him the sheep 
would not know, for the sheep, each fold, could know 
only the voice of its own shepherd. The Master points 
to those doors opening to the owner and says, " I am 
the door. By me if any man entereth in he shall be 
saved." He points to the shepherd and says, "I am 
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life 



3 SERMONS. 

for the sheep." The transition in thought here, from 
the shepherd to his giving his life for the sheep, is not 
unnatural, for those sheep themselves were all of them 
for sacrifice, and suggested to Him the very mission upon 
which He had come, to give His life for the sheep. Then 
the mind and heart of the Saviour stretch away beyond 
those folds and that narrowed Israel, to the flocks that 
were gathered in other lands — national walls built be- 
tween — mountain prejudices dividing — but all of them 
His, and for which He was about to die, and then adds : 
" Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Them 
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there 
shall be one fold and one shepherd." 

The practice of sacrifice in religion is a practice the his- 
tory of which begins with the history of the human race. 
That fact is worth observing. When Adam sinned, he 
discovered his utter nakedness. Failure anywhere re- 
veals our weakness. His bodily nakedness was but the 
shadow of a still greater nakedness. The skins of the 
beasts which clothed him were his first lesson in the 
great fact he had to learn— that a covering and protec- 
tion must come to him from a source which God in the 
nature of things had provided. The giving of life by 
the sacrifice, was the first lesson in the fact that a life 
was to be "laid down" for the sins of the race. The 
knowledge, resulting in the practice of sacrifice, came 
to man either from intuition, which was nature's way of 
teaching, and so from God — or, it came to him from 
reason, which was man's great weapon of defence, and 
so from God — or, it came to him in some way which we 
call revelation, and so from God. Its adoption at all, in 
religion, and its universality in adoption, make it impos- 
sible that it should have been the outgrowth of mere 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD. 



9 



ignorance. Or, even if it were, it betrays an instinct, 
and as such is still the shadow of some great fact, as all 
such instincts are. This sacrifice — this animal slaying — 
this mere type — went out with man into all lands. There 
is not a religion, so called, in any nation without it. All 
its roots are in nature. The being in man is in this, as 
in all other cases, responsive to God's provisions, in be- 
ing beyond man. In proclaiming the sacrifice of Christ, 
we do not bring Him down to a level with the heathen; 
but we unearth the fact that, since the heathen have an 
inkling of the eternal plan of God, they are witnesses. 
Atonement is in nature — -in highest intelligence and mo- 
rality. Sacrifice is the prime law of all creation. I have 
not time to trace that, though it would be worth while 
to do it. Especially is it the parent of all good. The 
mother makes a sacrifice for her child; the soldier for 
his country; the righteous for the wicked. Reconcile- 
ment with highest good is the one work of time for man, 
and sacrifice is the only road thereto. The richer the 
nature the more capable of sacrifice. Only a rich na- 
ture can make a true sacrifice. God is the richest of 
all natures. He serves all. He saves all. His sacri- 
fice is greatest of all. 

When Adam was made, though he was the perfection 
of animals, he was a babe in intellect and morals. He 
was incapable of a pure thought. It was needful to 
teach him as we teach children. Some men have not 
yet gotten over that necessity. A sign language was 
necessary. Soon this was capable of development. 
Hence this shadow sacrifice has a history. The Mosaic 
dispensation was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. 

The narrowing of the sacrificial history to the Jewish 
nationality, did not exclude other nations from their 



10 



SERMONS. 



share of the benefits contained in the ultimate sacrifice. 
The Jewish nationality had nothing in it to make it a 
favorite of God. God can never be a partizan in any 
such narrow sense as that. The human race was His 
offspring, and he loved one part as much as the other. 
He employed the Jews as part and parcel of the type sys- 
tem itself; a thing hitherto not sufficiently remembered. 
As the race divided in the beginning, part retaining some 
knowledge of the true God, and part going off to their 
own inventions, so the Hebrews afterwards divided. 
As there were Jew and Gentile, so there were Judah 
and Israel. As God designs, respecting Judah and Is- 
rael, so God designs respecting Jew and Gentile. The 
Jew being a type, gives Catholicity to the promise. The 
promises made to the Jews are made to them as repre- 
sentatives of the race — through them to the race. All 
those expectations which look for a literal fulfilment of 
the promises to the Jews as a people, are extremely 
shortsighted. The prophets themselves, those wonder- 
ful men, who seem to have towered above all that was 
temporary and sectional, tell us as much. Josiah says, 
"Neither let the son of the stranger, who hath joined 
himself to the Lord, say, the Lord hath utterly separ- 
ated me from His people, for thus saith the Lord : Even 
unto him will I give in my house and within my walls 
a place, and a name better than of sons and of daughters. 
Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make 
them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings 
and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar, and 
my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. 
The Lord God, who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, 
saith : Yet will I gather others to him beside those that 
are gathered unto Him." Words that seem almost iden- 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD. 



11 



tical with those of the Saviour Himself — " Other sheep I 
have," etc. The prophet Ezekial says : " The word of 
the Lord came to me saying, Take thee one stick, and 
write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel, 
his companions ; then take another stick and write upon 
it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house 
of Israel, his companions ; and join them one to another 
in one stick, and they shall become one in thy hand ; 
and say unto them thus saith the Lord God : behold, I 
will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, 
whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, 
and bring them into their oivn land, and I will make them 
one nation upon the land of the mountains of Israel ; and 
one king shall be king to them all ; and they shall be no 
more tivo nations, neither shall they be divided into tivo 
kingdoms any more at all" Words that are, as it were, 
an echo of these very words of Christ — " and there 
shall be one fold under one shepherd," " mountains of 
Israel," " one king," " no more two nations," " divided 
into two kingdoms no more forever ! " What is all that 
but a vision of the heritage which all the ages have 
pledged us ? That is " our own land," the distant Ca- 
naan which the Lord our God hath given us. The whole 
plan of God works together. It is the history of sacri- 
fice ; the promise made in that history ; the coming of 
Christ to fulfil it; which, to me, is a proof of the atone- 
ment fully convincing and altogether invincible. We 
see God with the race — God in all time; God never 
leaving nor forsaking ; always teaching, moulding ; never 
placing His power in man, or in shadow, but employing 
man and shadow to bring humanity to Himself. 

If we* inquire what the sacrifice which Christ made 
really was, what its purpose was, all sacrifice and all 



L2 



SERMONS. 



prophecy grow transcendently luminous. We have be- 
come very widely habituated to the thought, that the 
sacrifice Christ offered was the act of dying upon the 
cross. Few men comparitively are prepared yet to take 
a much wider view. The fact is, the shedding of blood, 
the giving of life, was only the culmination of the sacri- 
fice, the climax of perfection. So far even Christ's 
sacrifice was also typical, meant to tell us that a true 
sacrifice must be to the very utmost of which circum- 
stances will admit. The sacrifice of Christ was all that 
is embraced in thirty -three years of being upon earth — from 
the Manger to the Ascension. What do those years not 
embrace ? If we should set aside all questions as to 
Christ's deity, and think of Him as of a being of tran- 
scendent excellence, I cannot conceive of a greater 
sacrifice than for such a being to sojourn with such a 
people as the Jews, merely for the purpose of doing 
them good, of giving them thoughts becoming manhood, 
of building up in them the kingdom of knowledge and 
virtue. To sit there contending even with His own 
disciples when He might have been quiet and enjoying 
His own being, is an act of the greatest possible mercy. 
To sit there and instruct — the instruction itself being 
of a sort vital to our well-being— is itself a revelation of 
God. It is a revelation of absolute goodness. To do 
it when nothing could be gained by it but death and 
ignominy ; to go through death and ignominy to prove 
He could do it ; to do it in order to show us the majesty 
of our moral being — the glory of moral action ; to teach 
us what a true sacrifice is, is itself a sacrifice beyond 
which we cannot conceive a greater, or conceive any- 
thing more glorious. Such a sacrifice was in all respects 
worthy of God. The very manner in which it was made 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD, 



13 



appeals to our moral instincts, and contains in itself a 
redeeming efficacy. It enthrones moral being. More- 
over, the sacrifice of Christ convinced us that God, the 
best of beings, had no enmity against us — for ought we 
know the worst of moral beings — convinced us that the 
best of all beings was our best of all friends ; proved 
to us that God absolutely had nothing that He treasured 
against us, but only longed for us to come to Him in 
love, and be in deed and truth His children. That 
sacrifice took away — cancelled all sin in itself. I do 
not pretend to know how. I do not think man knows 
how that was, any more than he knows how creation 
was. But in that sense of proving God, reconciled to 
us, there was atonement — at-one-ment. That was a reve- 
lation to. us — a demonstration. Man could not hence- 
forth doubt that God was reconciled to all men, and 
only wanted all men reconciled to Him. A great par- 
tition wall was broken down. That was another part of 
that sacrifice. It not only broke down all partition walls, 
making one commonwealth of the race, instead of simple 
Israel, but it revealed the only difference that ever had 
been or ever could be between men- — the difference be- 
tween holiness and unholiness. It showed us what a 
reconciliation to God must be — -not a name, but a fact; 
what a glory there was in it ; and what the road was by 
which we must all attain it. Jesus Christ was the typical 
man. As all ages told of Him, so He told of all future 
ages. We see in Him what this race shall become. We 
see in Him hoiv man is to become that. Jesus Christ is 
the expression of what God meant by " His Holy Moun- 
tain," of which the prophets spake. Jesus Christ is 
the expression of what God means by burnt offerings 
and sacrifices. When He says that the offerings and 



14 SERMONS. 

sacrifices of the nations shall be accepted on His altar, 
He means not that He will accept their old shadows and 
orclinancies, their abominations, but that they shall learn 
of Him and bring sacrifices and offerings such as His 
altars demand. The life of Christ shows us how God 
loves mercy, rather than sacrifice ; and how it is mercy — 
love which is the annihilation of self — love which leads 
to all knowledge and blessing, and to the giving of all 
knowledge and blessing to all men — which is the sacri- 
fice God desireth. This has been the purpose of God 
in all the ages — this the purpose of God in all dispensa- 
tions — to bring men to holiness, to the culture and highest 
exercise of all he is, to be just what Christ was. For 
this, this whole world has been groaning and travailing. 
This is the house of prayer for all people the prophets 
foretold. This is the fold of which Jesus speaks. 

These words of Christ, to-day, are a sublime prophecy, 
a rich and precious promise — " There shall be one fold 
under one shepherd." Man joined all together and ruled 
over by God. He a Father and we a family; He loving 
us all, and we loving one another ; peace on earth and 
good will among men. 

Now I do not wish to be indefinite here, or to be mis- 
understood. When I think of Christ, when I view Him 
as He is in the Gospel, I see Him in two prime relations. 
One as an expression of God to us, and one as an expres- 
sion of man to us. I thus see him as God and man. As 
an expression of God to us, He is an expression of good- 
ness ; He is an assertion of high law — of spirit ; i. e., 
of that which is not transient, but fixed — high, glorious 
and eternal. He is a reflection of the most exalted be- 
ing — of the exercise of perfect and unmixed principle. 
He is a standard, not of the animal, but of the intel- 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD. 



15 



lectual and moral — of pure love, of pure mind, of love 
in action. He is the assertion that 66 God is light and in 
Him is no darkness at all." That incarnation says to 
every human being, God is your Father; God is love. 
Then, as a man, subject to all mortal contingency — in a 
condition far below the average ; in a condition, indeed, 
beyond which we cannot conceive one of greater trial 
and disadvantage — His life expresses a perfect conform- 
ity to moral law. He is moral law in action. He is 
obedience to every instinct of goodness of which we 
have any conception. Every part of our being finds 
there its full and harmonious development. That life 
is a consistency, a unit — in mind, unequalled; in spirit, 
transcendent; in action, glorious. If there is any free- 
dom from bodily infirmity, it is there. If there is any 
grandeur in intellectual vigor, it is there. If there is 
beauty in moral perfection, it is there. If this being in- 
volves the possession of multiplied powers — of varied 
relations, civil, social, domestic — of complicated provi- 
dences — we find them all harmonious in Christ. If 
faculties, relations, and providences, imply self-denial 
and sacrifice, we see in Him not only that self-denial 
and sacrifice are not contrary to goodness, but directly 
of its essence; at once, cause and effect. If faculties, 
relations and providences, imply a progress in knowl- 
edge, in subjection of self to wisdom; an end of 
ignorance, strife and sin — a perfection of society — in 
short, a perfection in man — we find it all in Christ. 
We see in Him manhood, restored to, reconciled with, 
an omnipotent God. He came here to tell us who and 
what God is. Being here He tells us what the perfect 
man is. Having been here to tell us of Gocl, He went 
back to His father to tell God of us. He stands in 



16 



SERMONS. 



the majest}^ of a perfect manhood, having kept all law; 
"making intercession for us;" pleading with Omnipotence 
to delay and wait, till this race shall be restored to the 
perfection of His likeness. This is Christ, God and 
man. Thus does He bring God to us. Thus does He 
take us up to God. 

This likeness of Christ, this knowledge of law, this 
exercise of love, this harmony of being, this practice of 
truth and holiness, this reconciliation to God, this happy 
perfection of. man, is the fold into ivhich all men are to be 
gathered. There is not, and there never was any other 
fold. All that have not been in it, all that are not in 
it, are and have been outside the fold. But the words 
of Christ are the promise, of which His sacrifice, i. e., 
His incarnation, is the pledge — There shall be one fold 
under one shepherd." This whole race shall be brought 
to God. "These, also, I must bring" says the Saviour. 
The Church of God — the Church of Christ — therefore is 
not an accidental organization, like the Jeivish nation — not 
a little fold, built about by human fences, or temporary 
things that human weakness calls divine. It is not an 
artificial organization, depending upon the accident of 
birth, of temperament, of association; but the Church 
of Christ is a broad, deep, eternal faith — a system com- 
prehensive of eternal truth ; a high, wise, and holy life ; 
a being glorious, and a giving of oneself in sacrifice, as 
Jesus did, that all men may become holy. The only 
local temple the faith has is the human heart. The ex- 
tent of the Church of Christ upon earth is precisely the 
extent of virtue, of peace, of truth — truth of any sort 
or degree, for the kingdom of truth alone is the kingdom 
of God. The extent of the Church of Christ upon 
earth is precisely the extent of real well-being in the 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD. 



IT 



human race. All else is tinsel, and mere sign language. 
None are in, or can enter the true fold, but they who 
hear the voice of Jesus, and none hear that but they who 
follow him, who are daily transformed into His likeness, 
and are an agency for bringing in that day herein fore- 
told, when there shall be one fold and one shepherd. 
If you and I have not given ourselves in sacrifice, we 
have not touched our nobler nature, and know not yet 
a true faith. We are not believers in Jesus, and need 
to pray: "Lord, help my unbelief." 

Now, I think it is of vital importance that we all at- 
tain to this idea. In such a view how do all our sects 
and isms dwindle down! How here does Christ be- 
come still a living being, present with his Church, speak- 
ing to it in His word ! How is every man instantly 
our brother, and our work instantly a definite and glori- 
ous action, just where we are, and under any conditions, 
to which it has pleased God to call us, to cultivate our- 
selves, to bear with our neighbor and try to cultivate 
him! How it raises civilization ahead of us, pure, per- 
fect, holy, our destined haven! How ignorance dies, 
and vice ends, and jails are given to moles and bats, and 
every knee and every heart bows to the name of Christ! 
How it elevates all men into a divine brotherhood; no 
nationality, no sectarianism, no petty ends ! If one is 
more unfortunate than another, how that fact instantly 
makes him a candidate for our warmest and highest 
offices of love! How it gives eveiy man a hope— a 
chance for the exercise of every sympathy and faculty 
of his being, whether he belongs to a church or not! How 
it opens to you, my brother, of whatever shade of faith 
you may be, the possibility of your coming back to God, 
by your coming back to Jesus! How it tells you what 

3 



18 



SERMONS. 



it is to come back to Him ; not to call him Lord, but to 

do what He says; to build as He showed us how; to 
be as he showed us being. Verily, there is no name 
given under heaven whereby man must be saved, but 
the name of Jesus. How this shows us how Jesus is a 
saviour in that He saves His people from their sins! 
In this view how unnatural are those pretensions we 
set up to superiority — those claims to priority ! How 
impossible is that unity in dead forms ; men think this 
world is to reach in their sect, and how undesirable even 
if attainable. It seems, brethren, as if in the ages past 
and in this present age, we have not been preaching 
what Jesus was, what Jesus is — a Saviour for this world 
— so much as putting salvation in the dim future and 
some other world, we know not where. We have not 
been preaching what He w T ants us to be : — not been 
preaching Christ and Christ crucified, so much as preach- 
ing our little folds other, and stranger shepherds. If 
that be so, no wonder the sheep have not heard our 
voice. Man wants something deeper and something 
stronger than petrifaction and organization. We have 
not been preaching sacrifice—the sacrifice we see in 
Jesus — as the road to bring us to God. Actions speak 
louder than words. As a consequence, we see our folds 
filled more or less, but in them all no sacrifice — millions 
upon millions are yet unredeemed. They lie in ignor- 
ance, in want of all good. Millions upon millions do 
not know there has been a Saviour, a true shepherd. 
He gave Himself a sacrifice for us all, and if there is 
any way in which He can be offered over again, it is 
only as He is offered in your heart and mine — going to 
carry Him a sacrifice to bring our brother to Him. It 
is true, God works by human agency, but do we not 



THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD. 



19 



rely too much upon artificial agency — do we not delegate 
our powers and neutralize them? We do not realize 
that individuality is at last the ultimate agency. If we 
could realize that all our organizations are but so many 
separate agencies for helping us, and not for hindering 
us, so many tools to work with, they would become ten- 
fold more efficient than they are. With our present 
notions, what are we doing? Sitting complacently with- 
in our folds, at best but repairing our fences, as much 
to keep out all that are out, as to keep in all that are in. 
Denouncing sect, and yet each one but the more secta- 
rian. I cannot sympathize with that sentiment which 
pretends to shudder at what we call infidelity, and yet 
can look with complacency upon ignorance and vice and 
crime and pauperism, and with more complacency as 
they attain to greater proportions. I believe that all 
good is of God; and while I would that every man could 
come and see Jesus, and acknowledge Him, yet if he has 
what was in Jesus in any degree, I can be thankful and 
pray to God in hope and faith that he shall have more. 
When John sent to ask the Master whether lie were 
the true Messiah, the Saviour healed the sick, fed the 
hungry, cured the lame and blind, gave tongues to the 
mute, and preached the Gospel to the poor, That was 
His answer to John — as much as to say, is not this just 
what this poor world wants? Can I be anything but 
God, if I bring it just the good it needs? If I did not, 
would I be a Saviour? Many Johns are asking now, 
where is the true Church — where is Christ? We cannot 
say the poor have the Gospel preached to them; that 
the devils are cast out of this world; that the dead in 
trespasses and sins are raised to life again. We want 
more sects, I think. At any rate, one more; one to go 



20 



SERMONS. 



and do the will of God; one to reclaim mankind and heal 
our woes; one to rejoice in the truth; one, every mem- 
ber of which shall bring out the highest expression of 
himself, and that a high expression of Christ; one, to 
offer sacrifice as Jesus did, to be like Him, in giving 
life a ransom for others, In our sectarianism we are 
but converting men from one sect to another. And, 
truly, to what profit? Suppose all the shepherds in 
one county induce all the sheep from another county to 
come over to them, are there any more sheep? Sup- 
pose you and I are teachers, and you take all my schol- 
ars, is there any more knowledge ? Suppose we should 
all belong to one church to-day, would there be any 
more Christians? Or, if we convert from the world at 
all, we convert to sectarianism rather than to Christ. 
We Christians have made a mistake. Our prevailing 
conception of the spread of the gospel is the idea of 
conversion. The fundamental thought of Christ is that 
of building. There is not a faculty in man which the 
gospel does not recognize. One consequence of our 
error is, that a great amount of faculty is perverted, 
and a much greater amount is latent, dormant, "tied up 
in a napkin." Opportunity which ought to employ our 
talent is withering, perishing. Educational forces are 
neglected. God would have us begin and lay founda- 
tions, where and when they ought to be laid; not on 
narrow, sectarian bases, but on broad and catholic prin- 
ciples, in purely Christian spirit. In our error the 
church force does not develop as fast as world force, 
I do not wonder men stand up in their pulpits, and tell 
us "Protestantism is a failure." Any ism will be a 
failure. There is but one thing incomprehensible in 
those men, and that is the blindness which can recom- 



THE FOLD AND TEE SHEPHERD. 21 

mend us 5 in a body to adopt Romanism, as if that were 
the greatest success upon earth; as if that which claims 
to he catholic were not the narrowest of all things, the 
one thing supremely needing conversion. But, brethren. 
Christ hath not left His sheep; God is moving. There 
is now approaching another advent; such an advent as 
has not been for at least three hundred years. To nar- 
row God down to our sects and isms would be only to 
degrade ourselves. God will not permit it. His work 
to-day is the same it has always been, to bring us to 
himself; and all the work of the ages shall not have 
been in vain. We are like the two disciples who wanted 
the places of honor; God will not be content with such 
low rivalry. He is telling us once more, we must be 
baptized with the baptism Christ was baptized with. 
We must drink of the cup Christ drank of. This valley 
of dry bones is not to continue forever. Bone is to 
come back to bone, joint to socket, and all clothed in 
power and true life. There is the promise — They shall 
hear. There shall be one fold and one shepherd.'' Men 
do hear that voice. There are men and women whose 
hearts are bowed, and whose hearts would break, were 
it not that that promise is there: — "I am with you;' 
All exertion shall not be in vain. We all need to hear 
it, because we all need a true faith — faith in God, faith 
in Christ, faith in that blessed day which God has 
promised, when our woes shall be ended and man shall 
be what Jesus was. God is speaking. All the signs 
of the times call upon us to awake, to put on the whole 
armor of God. Some of us shall fall short of the glory 
that remains, just as the Jews fell short of that tirst 
glory. Is it you? Is it I? That it might not be, let 
us all awake and seek new light from Christ, Let us 



22 



SERMONS. 



seek a higher comprehension of Him, of our life, of our 
destiny; that so we may be not only within the eternal 
fold ourselves, but agents, co-workers with God, in bring- 
ing the promised day, when there shall be "one fold and 
one shepherd." 



ELIJAH IN THE CAVE. 

1 Kings, 19 : 9. — And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there, and 
behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said — What doest thou 
here, Elijah? 

The beautiful order of our church introduces us this 
morning to one of the most remarkable characters ever 
presented for human contemplation. The history of 
Elijah is brief, emphatic, and grand. The life of Elijah 
is illustrative, therefore, instructive and inspiring. If 
Christ had not told us John the Baptist were greater 
than he we should have imagined Elijah the greatest 
of men. Yet great as he was he was still only man, 
and the text brings him to our notice, hid away in a 
cave, moody, gloomy, and desponding, God, however, 
still with him, and he God's child, though he knows not 
how near God is to him. 

It has pleased God, in the history of nations, to in- 
struct us relative to the needs, tendencies, and capabilities 
of man, in the mass. One nation is a reflection of all 



ELIJAH IN THE CAVE. 



23 



nations. All the laws that work in one work in another. 
A perfect history of one nation would give us a picture 
of man in society under three fundamental aspects, the 
Family, the State, and the Church. In a complete 
national history we view man socially, civilly, and re- 
ligiously. It has pleased God, in the history of individ- 
uals, to instruct us relative to human life in its fountains, 
to human nature in its organic forces, to the individual 
in his necessities, his cravings, and his hopes. One man 
is an epitome of his race, in all that is involuntary and 
natural. A wicked man is an epitome of man, under a 
perversion of his endowments. A righteous man is an 
epitome of man under a wise improvement of nature's 
gifts. Man presented to us individually and socially, 
is man presented to us in all his being. These two ne- 
cessities, the individual and the social being, hold man 
up in his body and his soul, his here and his hereafter. 
Hence, for our instruction God employs both in the Bible. 
The nation and the individual are God's two grand illus- 
trations. The Jews will live as long as the Bible, and 
holy men of Gocl will shed light upon all coming ages. 
For this reason we have man, in the Bible, just as he is, 
a fallen, weak being, slowly and irregularly, but certainly 
and proudly rising. We have man in his weakness and 
in his strength, in his misfortune and his fault, his igno- 
rance and error, in his motives, too, his wisdom, aspira- 
tions, and achievements. If the Bible presented us 
with wicked men, wholly, irredeemably wicked, without 
one quality to relieve a nature absolutely dark, it would 
give us, not a likeness, but a mere ideal — it would give 
us an exception, not an average. Men go gradually 
down as well as gradually up. We should find the 
counterpart of an utterly abandoned man nowhere in 



24 



SERMONS. 



life, for seldom, if ever, has it happened that man has 
been left without all traces of God's likeness. We should 
have no fear of becoming such monsters, and therefore, the 
effect of the warning would be lost. If the Bible present- 
ed us with righteous men, uniformly and exaltedly righte- 
ous, superlatively good, never lapsing, nor betraying any 
weakness, we should have something which could find 
no counterpart in our observation or experience, and so 
the effect would be to discourage us. We could have 
no hope of attaining to absolute perfection, and so should 
give up exertion and sink into sin. 

Human life is a wonderful complication, and yet, in 
some of its aspects, it is a sublime simplicity. One thing 
that is wonderful about it is, that while what has been, 
is still, while one generation but repeats the experiences 
of another, while one man is only plodding the common 
path, there is no robbing it of its reality. Each genera- 
tion has to think for itself just the same. Each man 
has his own struggles and his own triumphs. The thought 
that God is over all, and that life is a fact common to 
all men, does not sink us into indifference— does not rob 
us of a sense of responsibility. The simple fact that 
another man has troubles does not take away ours. 
Every life is a unit in itself, a new creation. I have just 
as much a problem to solve as if a similar problem had 
never been solved. Every man, though only a worm, 
has wrapt up in him an infinity and an eternity, though 
only an atom he is, as though a whole humanity were 
concentrated within him. Each one has a work to do, 
a hope to achieve, a God to see. Each has it to do for 
himself, just as if no being had ever done it before him. 

But, whilst time is only repeating itself, the very 
repetition implies progression. Whilst we are all moving 



ELIJAH IN THE CAVE. 25 

in the same orbit, the orbit itself is moving in a sublime 
procession. If each has the same problem to solve, each 
must still solve it under different conditions. A life 
ahead of mine, a foot-print on the sands of time, is of 
infinite importance to me, in telling me I am not off the 
track, not lost, not merely wandering, floating, drifting. 
There is life in the thought that it is worth while to 
struggle, that every exertion tells toward the grand 
consummation. The wise, the children of God, they 
not only leave foot-prints to guide us, they smooth 
the road, they then illuminate it. It ought to be easier 
every day to find our way to heaven, and it would be 
if we were stronger pilgrims, clear sighted and girded 
for the march. 

But life which is not thoroughly vicious and wicked, 
is of two kinds. It is no use to speak of vicious and 
wicked life. Nobody admires it. Everybody knows it 
is wrong. The wicked themselves abhor it. But life 
which is not thoroughly vicious and knowingly wicked , 
is of two kinds. There is a way of living which accepts 
life without reflection, takes it as it conies, without care. 
Many a man sails upon the surface, heedless of any 
depths below him, of all heights above him, of any dan- 
gers around him, of any destiny before him. The great 
problems of existence, the thoughts by which men live, 
are all undreamed of by them. Human brains, and 
hearts, and hands may ache, and break, and toil, but 
there is no aching, or breaking, or toiling for them. 
Whatever there is in life which can contribute to human 
security, or enjoyment, or comfort they accept as if it 
were produced of the winds. They know nothing of 
moral agency. They care nothing for individual useful- 
ness. Every element is theirs to turn to their own 

4 



26 



SERMONS. 



advantage. The chief end of man is to enjoy himself 
and glorify himself. They have no fears, no longings. 
They take out of the world all they can get, and what- 
ever there is left over will be sufficient and good enough 
for the next generation. They have no moral troubles. 
They cannot understand the language of those who feel 
the weight of being, and by whose labors the thought- 
less live, and the world survives. The Bible is a sealed 
book to them. All greatness, all goodness is a mystery. 
Being — the great, fathomless canopy over them, contains 
no world. It is all only blue, blank, fathomless noth- 
ingness. They seem to have an easy time, and some- 
times it would appear that this world is made up very 
largely of them. 

But there is another kind, men who think, men who 
work, men who penetrate the fogs that envelop us, men 
who take soundings, and lay the human course according 
to great laws of right and of God. Such souls have a 
responsibility. God seems to have laid a world upon 
their shoulders. The wicked enter as one of the factors 
into their problem, the vicious, the listless, the ignorant, 
then all the results evolved out of all these "known or 
unknown quantities. For such souls the laws of moral 
being are the same, whether they be called to private 
life or public life, whether they be known of us or known 
only to themselves. In God's moral world the little is 
great, and what we call great is often little. The wide 
results which overspread life have their source in con- 
cealed and remote springs. The little child, the hum- 
blest agent in the domestic economy, sends a vibration 
through a prime minister's heart — through a kingdom. 
A problem well discussed around the hearth stone, well 
worked out around the home altar, works reform for a 



ELIJAH IN THE CAVE. 



27 



generation, and brings blessings upon posterity. In 
God's moral world you cannot speak of the private or 
of the public. Whatever is private, works like the sap 
in the tree, and spreads in foliage, in sprig, and limb, and 
trunk. Whatever is public is only fruit. In the moral 
world, soul is soul, to be fed by soul nutriment, to do 
soul work, and wherever such a soul is in this world, it 
will find itself with no easy work to do. This world is 
a crucible — this life is a refiner's fire. Only God's gold 
endures the refining. 

Such a soul is thrown back upon itself, and in man 
there seems to be nothing of itself strong. Mark that 
— for this is a lesson I desire to teach you this day — man 
is a creature. Strength cannot be predicated of man. 
He is the strongest man who knows fhis fact best. Only 
in humility is exaltation. It is very remarkable that 
the great characters held up to us in the Bible have 
their special failings, precisely where we should expect 
them to be superlatively strong. Moses, who was re- 
nowned for his meekness, erred through impatience, and 
spake unadvisedly with his lips. St. John, the amiable, 
loving disciple, it was, who asked his Master if he should 
call down fire from heaven to consume his enemies. St. 
Peter, the brave, resolute man — quails at the question 
of a harmless maiden, and sits like a craven denying 
his Lord. Elijah, the most heroic character with which 
history presents us, sits before us in a cave, in a con- 
dition of abject despondency. He had faced the wicked 
and angry Ahab. He has faced, single handed, eight 
hundred wicked men. He is now alarmed at a mere 
threat of Jezebel, and, though feeling it is better to die, 
runs away to save his life. Verily, man is but a bundle 
of weaknesses. And this is the first lesson of life, in 



28 



SERMONS. 



point of importance 7 for man to learn, and the last les- 
son, in point of reality, man ever learns. There is thy- 
self, and myself. There is man. If our strength he 
weakness what must our weakness be ? The whole 
design of being seems to be to bring the wise to know, 
and trust, and love God. The wicked abhor the thought. 
Those who only play life care nothing about it, and the 
wise find it the one thing hard to do. The fatality of 
man is to trust himself, and the fatality of man is in that 
trust, to fail. Only God is strong, and man is strong 
only as he is in God, and God is in him. How the great 
godless things of the past have vanished away ! Where 
is Ahab's kingdom? Where is Ahab himself? How 
the "weak things and things despised," do live ! Elijah, 
in the very instincts of the race, sits upon a throne. 
He was a king of men, But he was weak, and he 
would have leaned upon his weakness. But God was 
better to him than he knew, and so is God better to 
every man, who would know him, than that man knows. 
Taking things seemingly great for the truly great, and 
our weakness for our strength, and our cravings for 
our good, we demonstrate our childishness. If we have 
some great thing to do how easy it is to do it. Elijah 
went to slay Ahab's prophets ; God gave him a great 
victory. I do not know that there was any pride in 
Elijah's heart, and that he said to himself — this is grand, 
this is success — but there would have been in mine, and 
I should have thought myself great, when it was only 
God reaching down and making me an instrument of 
His own will. My will would have been to do all God 
did, but not to give Him all the glory, and the thing 
for me to do is to glorify Him, and when I can say I 
will go to Carmel, or to the cave in Horeb, as God 



ELIJAH IN THE CAVE. 



29 



pleases— the one as joyfully as the other— then I am 
great, and greater at Horeb— if I manner not— than I 
am at Car m el, though I do rejoice. He who wants to 
do some great thing has not learned of God, not that 
great things may not be of God, but that there are 
greater things God wishes us to do, but which we do 
not yet know to be even great, Elijah went to this cave 
on the strength of food God gave him for that purpose, 
and by angelic direction, and yet it was not the place 
where God wished him to be. It was only needful for 
him that he should be there. With all his bravery he 
was a coward. Every man and every woman, however 
great, is very much of a coward. We can face the 
grand, the popular, the successful; but a word, a threat, 
a frown, a mishap, a disappointment, alarms us and 
,j throws us into an agony of fear. It is said a little 
' string upon a stick will very much alarm a lion, and 
man is very like a lion — a scepter, a tongue, a little 
angry sound, or a lack of applause, drives us to despair. 
And yet, how God pities us and indulges us, though 
we start aside like a broken bow — how He follows us, 
and holds us in the hollow of his hand till the fever fit 
be overpast. He knows the sickness and weakness of 
these bodies. He takes account of our burden — counts 
and weighs every pound. He sees the poverty looking 
in at our door, the barrel of meal wasting, the little 
cruse of oil failing, He sees us struggling all alone, 
though we are in a crowd, without a real sympathy — - 
though very much needing it — with plenty to help us 
when we are successful, and need no help — but with no 
helping hand to lift us out of the sloughs of despair. 
He knows the galling, maddening pressure of disap- 
pointment, the hopelessness inspired by failure. He 

t 



30 



SERMONS. 



sees the bitterness curdling round the heart when the 
causes we love, the principles we cherish, the rules of 
life we adopt, seem to wither and threaten to die. He 
sees the misunderstanding that follows us, the misrep- 
resentation, the alienation, in the hearts of those whose 
real interest it is to understand, and represent, and 
cherish us. He sees the assumption of the wicked, 
absolutely unconcious that they are wicked — for it ap- 
pears to be the doom of the lost not to know they are 
lost— to be in darkness and in woe, and the causes of 
woe to others, but with their pet schemes all the same, 
feasible still, though eternally impossible. He hears 
the prince of this world ask us, " Art thou he that 
troublest Israel ?" He hears us told we are the causes 
of trouble, that we get into extremes, that we care too 
much, and ought to let the world slide as it will, and eve- 
rything will slide well enough at last. He sees us, when 
heart sick and foot sore, we turn aside in dismay and 
disgust and ask ourselves whether we are not, after all, 
the unwise, whether it be not better to die than to live. 
He sees our hopes, our great life aim and work lie prostrate 
in the dust. He beholds us crushed and bewildered, idterly 
broken down and helpless, and running to hide ourselves, 
we know not whither, and when we run He runs with 
us, provides a rest, gives us food, not always what we 
want, but that which is good, not always that we know 
it comes from Him, but always His gift. He guides us 
on to Horeb — sometimes a long journey — His own 
mount — to some cave He has there, some sheltered place 
for his children to rest in — a blessed place — though it be 
dark and God seem not there ; blessed, because it is the 
only place to which they are fit to go. How often are we 
blessed when we do not know it. How often are the things 



ELIJAH IN THE CAVE. 31 

we think the hard things of our lot, the very blessings and 
shelters Gocl had providentially provided, while we were 
angry, and weak, and thought nothing of Him. Jere- 
miah, faithful as Elijah, but less happy, could only ex- 
claim, " Oh, that I had a lodge in some vast wilderness, 
that I might leave my people, and turn my eyes into 
tears, and my eyelids into a fountain of waters." 

Paul, in his prison house in Rome, what a rest he had; 
and John at Patmos, what a vision ! And in that cave 
He gives us time to collect our shattered senses, and 
then sweetly looks in and gently says, "What doest 
thou here, Elijah, out of thy place, away from thy 
work, saddened, discouraged and alone?" What doest 
thou here ? And then we go back and review our little 
life and find we have placed too much value upon our- 
selves, and yet we are still spared, we are preserved, 
we have not been alone after all. There were agencies 
over us, and agencies around us, and we were only little, 
humble agencies ourselves. We see life, now a great 
whirlwind, rushing and tearing before us; and now an 
earthquake, shaking as it were the very earth to its cen- 
ter; and now a fire, consuming all we had; and yet God 
was not there. The one thing we wanted we found not. 
Oh! how it takes a whirlwind, and an earthquake, and 
a fire utterly to stop us, and make us feel that all things 
here below are only nothing; that there are but tivo real 
things upon earth — ourselves and Gocl, and that the con- 
summation of all designs is to bring us two together. 
That is the still, small voice that comes stealing over us, 
thrilling us through and through. God is not in our 
world, nor in our work: but God is there in that voice; 
God mighty, God loving, God telling us it is worth while 
to struggle, worth while to work; God holding up sue- 



32 



SERMONS. 



cess at last — seven thousand have not bowed the knee — 
thy prayers are heard; thy work has availed — -only 
not by you. but hy me: — "I am thy strength and 
thy salvation." Yes, beloved, if you could only hear 
through the whirlwind and the earthquake and the tire 
of life — that is the voice of God for you : — " I am thy 
strength and thy salvation." Your great things are 
all nothing. You are but weakness. Mortal success, 
if it be nothing more than mortal, is a delusion and a 
snare. Mortal greatness, if it be nothing more than 
mortal, is vanity. If yon do not know it, then you are 
not one of the high-born children of God. Moral suc- 
cess is all the success there is upon this world. Ask 
the ages — ask the builders of the Pyramids, if thou 
canst find them — ask Xerxes — ask Croesus — ask Moses 
— ask Elijah — ask all God's children. To have found 
God, and to have found thyself in Him, is to have found 
thy strength — is to have found strength itself. That is 
the crowning lesson of all time. It stands incarnate in 
Christ. It triumphed at Calvary. Only in God is 
strength. Your own heart, your cave, may be a happy 
retreat for you; your lodging there maybe comfortable; 
but, simply there, you are alone and lost. God comes 
to you there and asks, "What doest thou there, Elijah ?" 
Look up and hear me. Reach out and find me; I am 
thy life, thy strength; I am thy strong salvation. 

Yes, beloved, God is with us, our strength and our 
portion. I do not know of any other thing that can make 
life endurable. To know this is to have faith. "This 
is the victory that overcometh the world." Well might 
Paul say of the children of God, "They walk by faith." 
I think, sometimes, I do not love God and do not serve 
Him; do not know Him and do not have this faith. But, 



ELIJAH IX THE CAVE, 



33 



then I think what if I did not know God at all! What 
if there were no God? What if I had no work to do 
for Him, and no hope of knowing Him better and be- 
ing with Him at last? If He were not with me, what 
would life be, its schemes, its burdens, its woes and dis- 
appointments, its bereavements? What a labyrinth! 
What a blank! Strike out the moral element, strike 
out God, you strike out a hereafter, and that obliterates 
the world. All is darkness. 

I read sometimes in the papers of a suicide — 
every day. In some cities they are getting to be an 
average of two a week. They are suggestive reading. 
God has given us spiritual faculties, for reaching out 
and laying hold of Him, and clinging there like the vine 
clings to the great strong oak. Man's soul has these 
clinging tendrils just the same as his body has hands. 
They are his souls' hands for clinging to God. That 
which we do not use we lose the power of using. We 
take them off from God. We think, by and by if we 
want Him we can lay hold of Him. We lay these soul 
hands down, we know not where. We do not trust, nor 
desire God's glory, nor walk by faith. Our soul in 
the world and worldly things, our hearts are invested 
in schemes of time. We do not know we are walking 
upon a volcano. All the groanings and tumults we hear 
do not warn us of the dangers near by. But the hour 
strikes, the earthquake comes, schemes tumble down, 
and where is God? The soul looks up and there is noth- 
ing but smoke and blackness and darkness. The soul 
would cling, but God is not there. There is nothing to 
cling with. The abyss opens and the soul drops. It is 
lost. Suicide ? Yes ! And is it because so many more 
men are leaving God for Mammon, that so many suicides 



34 



SERMONS. 



occur? Ah, beloved, how precious it is to have this God 
to lay hold of, this Father to whose arms we can nestle, 
this faith by which we can cling! We may be stripped, 
we may be persecuted, we may be alone in any cave 
the vicissitudes of life have opened for us, but if God 
is there and we are His, and He is ours, we have more 
than a world. Victory is near. Let me commend this 
God to you all. You that are young, you need a 
strength. It is in God. You that are middle aged, you 
need a strength. It is in God. You that are old, you 
need a strength. It is in God. You that are in pros- 
perity, you that are in adversity, your security is in 
God. Run through the Bible, and the thought that 
threads the whole is the thought that man needs God; 
that God is found of them that truly seek Him; that he 
who finds Him finds more than a universe. How God 
revealed Himself to Elijah I do not know; how Isaiah 
knew Him and Daniel and David, I know not; but how 
we may know Him I can clearly tell. We must know 
Christ. He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. 
Look at Christ. There is something there more than 
Elijah, more than Isaiah, more than Daniel, more than 
all together. There is strength — no elation at great 
things, no depression at persecution, no hiding in a cave — 
there is consistency, there is perfection. Every part of 
that life is knit into every other part, and all of it strong 
and holy. Like the garment Christ wore, His life was 
a unit, woven throughout. There was man with God 
and God with man. It is good to go to Elijah for aid 
ami comfort, for knowledge that God does not leave us, 
but it is better and sweeter to go to Christ. Elijah 
shows us how God loves us, even if we are erring, and 



WISDOM. 



85 



Christ shows us how we need not err if we will truly 
love and truly trust. 

Life maybe checkered, sometimes dark and sometimes 
bright; life may be public, calling you before the world, 
or it may be private, shutting you away where nobody 
knows you; life may be lonely and bereft of its sweet- 
ness; but have Christ with you, and be yourself with 
Him, and you are safe. But if you are in some dark 
cave, where God seems not, it may be of gloom and 
doubt and discouragement, it may be of weariness and 
poverty and sickness, it may be of failure and want of 
sympathy, it may be of pride and ignorance and lack 
of faith, whatever it be it is no place for you. You 
are God's child. He is not far from you. He calleth 
to you, what doest thou there. Come out and stand 
upon the mount. View life and see how empty it is; 
view thyself and see how weak thou art; view God and 
see how good and kind and strong he is; embrace Him, 
and then there is victory for you in this life, and true 
glory for you in the life to come. 



WISDOM. 



Proverbs 1 : 5, 6. — A wise man will hear and will increase learning; and a 
man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb 
and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. 

The Church in her revolution with the year brings us, 
to-day, to the Proverbs of Solomon. This first chapter 
introduces us to the subject of wisdom. Wisdom, in 
itself, is a subject to most men peculiarly dry and insipid. 



36 



SERMONS. 



I hardly know how to make it for us this morning in 
any degree juicy and nutritive. 

It is worthy of observation that this Book upon wis- 
dom was written by a king. Kings and wisdom have 
seldom had much to do with each other. The wise have 
generally been men who dwelt in obscurity — men near 
to nature. But Solomon was only two removes from 
the people. The blood that was in him was plebian, 
and so it was nature at last true to herself. Since 
Solomon is emphatically called the wise, the significance 
of the fact that he was king may be found in the truth 
that wisdom alone is always royal. Or, since Solomon 
belonged to a system that was eminently typical, the 
meaning of the fact that he was a king, may lie in the 
fact that he was only a type of another son of David, 
who was greater than Solomon, the wonderful counsel- 
lor, the king of kings, the light of the world. 

What is wisdom ? Unhappily for us, it is easier to 
tell what it is not than to tell what it is. Most men 
imagine it is something that can be made, something 
depending upon human opinion, having its roots in con- 
tingency and expediency. Solomon suggests at once 
that this is not it. "A wise man will hear and will in- 
crease learning." Hear what and learn what! "A man" 
of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels/' Wis- 
dom is something beyond us, to be learned — to reach 
up to— something fixed. Wisdom in us is a perception 
by us of that something, a harmony of our actions with 
it. God hath made all things and given to every thing 
its laws. In all His laws, there is a fitness, an adapta- 
tion of one to the other. There is no patchwork, every- 
thing is rooted in every other thing. All laws are mu- 
tually helpful. The whole universe is a unit. That , 



WISDOM. 



B7 



unity and helpfulness is wisdom. Solomon, making 
Wisdom speak for herself, says, "I was set up from ever- 
lasting. When there were no depths I was brought 
forth. Before the mountains were settled, I was born. 
When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When he 
appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by 
Him, as one brought up with Him, rejoicing in the habit- 
able parts of the earth. My delights were with the sons 
of men" This was God's special object in all things — 
the glory of His intelligent creatures. All the glory 
there is for us is to know His works — through them we 
know Him. "Now, therefore, hearken unto me, ye 
children, for blessed are they that keep my ways." Not 
to know them is to be unblessed. Wisdom is the one 
eternal thing, without which nothing can be good, and 
nothing good eternal, To learn this nature of things, 
to understand this plan of God, to work in harmony 
with it, is to be wise. Man is wise in proportion as he 
partakes of this wisdom. Not to know it, to substitute 
any thing else for it, to thwart it, is to be run over, 
crushed by it. That it is — to be lost! Wisdom also 
ordered this. Moral intelligence is, that it can choose 
which to do. The glory of moral intelligence is, to see 
wisdom and to choose to accept it; or I might say to see 
it } for to see it is to accept it. 

Because these laws of God pervade all things, and 
because in our economy things seem to run in streaks 
or departments, there are different kinds of wise men. 
One farmer is wiser than another. He observes not 
only the laws of nature, and the laws of industry, but 
also the laws of demand and supply. He knows where 
and when to sow, where and when to work, what to 
sow, so as, from time and labor and crop, to gain the 



38 



SERMONS. 



largest profits. One merchant is far wiser than another, 
inasmuch as he penetrates that which is merely acci- 
dental in trade, and perceives the great principles that 
sustain and govern it. Sometimes a man will see but 
one law, and by following that carefully will attain suc- 
cess. Sometimes, merely to save will make a man rich; 
sometimes, mere hard work and much work. But mere 
saving and mere work are rarely to any great degree 
successful, because there are so many, and far more 
powerful laws. Many things tend to neutralize industry 
and economy. The broader a man's view — the more 
comprehensive his grasp of law, of tendency, of society — 
so much the more sure of success. A man with such 
a grasp sometimes lays aside saving and industry, buys 
a piece of ground, lies down and sleeps, and in a year 
wakes up rich. He knew society would soon need his 
piece of land. This is wisdom of its kind, in its degree. 
It is no high order of wisdom. It hardly touches the 
manhood; but being obedience to law, it is, after its 
kind, wisdom. It accounts for much of the strange in- 
equality we perceive in life. Men sometimes think it 
strange riches should be so unevenly distributed, but 
there is nothing strange about it. It is natural and in- 
evitable. If you should divide evenly, to-day, all the 
money upon earth, before to-morrow morning some of 
us would have double and some of us would have noth- 
ing. And yet this wisdom is so low as to be scarcely 
wisdom at all. In all trades we expect to get a fair 
bargain, but a man may give far too much for his money. 
He may barter himself ^ his mind, his soul — he may give 
health and culture and life — for a bag full of earth. He 
is not wise. There are scales of wisdom. 

And so all the way up. One painter is wiser than 



WISDOM. 



39 



another. What is skill ? What is genius ? There are 
laws — or, at any rate, shades of laws — attachments and 
combinations of laws which cannot be written down in 
a book, which cannot be expressed in words, but which 
can be perceived and expressed in art. The Michael 
Angelos and Christopher Wrens need no books. They 
make books. Blind men imitate them. They imitate 
nature. They would make a higher success, if the 
helplessness of the race did not set limits to their powers 
of execution. But, it is as you go up you catch a 
glimpse of the illimitableness of man; that while his 
being is all one structure, it is a house of many floors. 
The skill in the fine arts, the perception of laws of pro- 
portion, adaptability and beauty, is a higher perception 
than that of merely getting bread. Tt brings into play 
diviner energies. So one legislator is wiser than another. 
And he who can penetrate the laws which govern society 
and make a better copy of those laws, for the govern- 
ance of his fellow men, is a wiser man than he who 
builds a temple. The true law-giver is a temple builder. 
He builds the great temple of human well being; that 
which brings peace to hearts, and makes all men so much 
nearer God. So beyond him, he who sees the law of 
soul, the essence of mind, the law of that law which 
governs all things at last; he who penetrates to the 
throne room of our being and stands before the majesty 
of reason, of will, of affection, of design — who unlocks the 
secrets of beauty and perfection — he is wiser than any — 
than all. He is a law-giver by whom law-givers live. 
From him comes the temple of order, of morality, of love, 
of happiness, of all success. He may not have food to 
eat, or raiment to wear, but he dwells with wisdom, and 
wisdom is God. It is only when you get here that you 



40 



SERMONS. 



get to that which is pre-eminently wisdom — that, with- 
out which, all the rest is mere skull and skin — -mere 
horse without a rider — house without tenant. And so 
this wisdom of Solomon has a very wide range, from 
the very lowest nearly up to the supremely highest. 
Still there is one range it touches not, as we may 
presently see. 

It might be thought, this may be all very true; 
but, because things do go by laws, it is impossible for 
all men to be pre-eminent in every thing, or perhaps 
in any thing. It would not be possible for every mer- 
chant to be an As tor, for every farmer to be a Long- 
worth, or every artist an Angelo. Nature bestows the 
gifts which make the men. Most certainly so. Nor 
would it be desirable that all men should be equally, or 
at any rate identically gifted. But while it is true na- 
ture endows in what might be called this extraordinary 
way, yet it is equally true nature does everywhere en- 
dow, does every man endow. All men are not Newtons, 
but every man has some mathematical sense. The. most 
ignorant and uncultured slave knows how to count his 
fingers. The laws of mathematics find in him a re- 
sponsiveness to those laws, and when Newton has found 
out that ten tens make one hundred, the man who has 
been ignorant may be made to see the fact. Every man 
cannot be a Christopher Wren, but all men can have, 
and do have, some idea of a shelter. For everything 
in the universe God has placed in man a chord which 
will vibrate when that something touches it. Man and 
nature are correlatives. They supplement each other. 
The natural gift is in every man in some degree. Even 
when it exists in the highest degree, it is still the 
subject of exercise, of development; and the lowest de- 



WISDOM, 



41 



gree may be, and ought to be, cultivated. But for this, 
man could never progress. Cultivation is the elixir of 
progress. This is the very essence of providence. God 
provides teachers. To the people that study nature, God 
gives more teachers. Nature follows her laws even 
there. Ireland is not New England. We have as much 
talent for music as the Germans, but the Germans are a 
much more musical people. The reason why is very 
plain. "The wise man will hear and will increase 
learning." 

You must see to what this brings us— to the very 
point from which we can see what wisdom Is—culture. 
What a folly it would be in me to criticise the works of 
Titian! What a folly in you to condemn the ethics of 
Plato! Suppose you wished a child, to learn the calcu- 
lus, would you allow him to say the first proposition in 
Euclid was untrue?— or to take some other course of 
study which had nothing to do with mathematics ?— be- 
cause his way was pleasant and the study of mathe- 
matics may be a little hard? So, If you wish to reach 
heaven you must not think you know the road yourself, 
nor think you can get there just as well by spending 
all your time upon something else, because you happen 
to like it. "A wise man will hear and will Increase 
learning ; "—not his conjectures ;— but find out what is— 
what God has done. Here we reach a secret to a secret 
When we start right, when we are upon the track of 
nature, one thing proves another. Things prove them- 
selves. The effects justify the cause. This is why 
Solomon could say, -"A man of understanding shall at- 
tain" — -it was no mere conjecture of his — shall attain 
unto wise counsels— to understand a proverb and the 
Interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark 



42 



SERMONS. 



sayings. We get from Mature in exact proportion to what 
we carry to her. If you give a child a problem in mul- 
tiplication, and that child sets down the figures accord- 
ing to conjecture, the product will not prove by any 
law; but if it follows law the product will be right, ap- 
ply to it what test you will. If that child goes on in 
those laws — because they are illimitable — it may open 
to us worlds, tear down mountains, fill up valleys, cause 
us to glide along on our journeys more rapidly than birds 
upon their wings, fill our homes with rich knowledge, 
and our world with light. Upon the track of law the 
engine of mind speeds with trains of blessing. Two. 
inches off the track, all is one dead mass. It but beats 
itself out in useless exertion; its power the more fatal 
in proportion to its degree. Hence, the absence of the 
knowledge of the law, like the want of a track, accounts 
for all the perversions and wrongs we see. In ignorance 
the Indian can believe and enjoy revenge—not that it is 
nature, except so far as it is perverted nature. He calls 
it enjoyment. In perversion, superstition can make an 
inquisition, or take a piece of bread for a piece of Christ's 
actual body. But, even in error, the moral sense is not 
wholly dead. The • Indian has some idea of justice. 
"There is honor among thieves." Beside, we cannot 
argue from perversions and exceptions. You cannot 
say there is no light, or that it has no laws, because 
sometimes it is dark. All the blind people in the world 
cannot destroy the fact that the human race has eyes, 
or that God made those eyes to see the light, which ex- 
isted before the eyes. As we know not the possibilities 
of law, so we know not the possibilities of no-law. The 
engine must be on the track. 

This opens the whole idea of authority. Where or 



WISDOM. 



43 



what is the track? God feeds His children in propor- 
tion as they can digest the food. He is His own light- 
bearer, in proportion as our eyes can bear the light. 
God, to us, is what we see of God. He who sees most 
is the best revealer. Truth — the law of the thing, 
whatever it be — that is the object. Whoever sees 
that, or can give that, he is the authority. In our civil 
affairs, for society, government is the main thing. Au- 
thority is not in a line of kings. Men are not made for 
kings; kings are made for men. If any one line could 
see true government forever, it would govern forever. 
When it ceases to govern as God knows government, its 
work is done. It remains only to bury it. The thing 
signified is never in the sign. So in science. You 
cannot hand a power down in a guild, or a fraternity. 
Shakspeare did not lay his hands upon anybody, and 
even if he had the world would still have been without 
his successor; and though his plays were written for a 
theater, you would not allow the best actor in the world 
to measure to you your appreciation for poetry. 
Herschel goes out and lies all night studying 
the stars. The stars tell him how they live, 
and he tells us. He is authority. The authorities are 
always starting up from nature; ears hear her; eyes see 
her; she whispers and reveals. They to whom she 
speaks are authority. Time and event prove their pre- 
dictions. Do you see how all truth of every sort is 
revelation? So, in the Church, all the apostolic hands 
could not give spiritual vision, and without that no man 
can be authority. Thomas a Kempis is better authority 
than Gregory VII ; Buny an and Baxter are worth more 
than all the Councils that ever met to make canons. 
The lights of God come fresh from Him. Luther hears, 



41 * SERMONS. 

and for that reason he is authority. He speaks, and 
that part of Europe which hears him bounds into new 
life. England is better than Italy. A papal benedic- 
tion and a papal malediction are exactly the same thing — 
nothing at all. All truth is one, and all error is one — 
the slide is easy from Rome to Constantinople. And so, 
whether in Pagan, Papal, or Protestant lands, whatever 
is contrary to God's law is superstition, immorality, 
ignorance, vice, crime, and great woe. Wisdom is 
knowledge of and conformity to God's laws. Unwisdom 
is ignorance and non-conformity. Let the facts of his- 
tory illustrate and prove the deductions of reason. Let 
not your prejudices or your education come in and cause 
you to lose this thought. All error— infidelity, atheism 
are but degrees of inability to see. Not that they neces- 
sarily see who pretend to see. For judgment is Christ 
come, that they who see not might see, and that they 
who see might be made blind. Just as when Newton 
came, multitudes who knew nothing were enlightened., 
and they who had been the world's teachers in astrono- 
my were proved to have been blind. 

This opens the queries about revealed and natural re- 
ligion. People talk about them as if they were two 
different things — -talk of natural religion as if there were 
an unnatural religion — as if God in Christ had done 
something contrary to His law— something outside and 
above His law, and by dwelling upon it, and claiming 
churchiy authority and vain and foolish powers, have 
made real and true religion appear to many extremely 
unnatural. Here in this same Bible, we have the two 
combined. Solomon tells us of wisdom, and speaks not 
one word of Christ, and it is a wonder he has not been 
thrown out of the canon of scripture. The truly wise, 



WISDOM, 



45 



they who are admitted to the mysteries of the higher 
wisdom, make a sacred fraternity, come from where they 
may. Job w^as a Gentile, but here he is bound up with 
Moses; and he saw some things that possibly Moses 
did not see. The prophet Amos did not belong to the 
prophetic line, but here he is side by side with Daniel 
and Isaiah. His soul touched some things the breath of 
which never stirred even the spirit of Solomon. I do 
not understand that the glow-worm is opposed to the 
sun. Light is light. My little lantern warms and 
cheers not a world, but it is better for me than un- 
broken darkness. The organ grinder in the street is 
not opposed to Beethoven; he may produce only an 
echo, and his pipes may produce their sounds by me- 
chanical necessity, but his music is music after its sort, 
and he is entertaining to children. Beethoven's soul 
drank at fountains where the angels drink. His music 
was natural to him, but it was a revelation to this world. 
Job and Solomon drank of the rills that flowed from the 
eternal fount of the All-wise. Daniel and Isaiah drank 
at the fountain. Jesus Christ was the fountain itself. 
He is wise who is honest. He is wiser who walks in 
high and precious thought. He is wisest who is in 
Christ Jesus, in love, in self-sacrifice and true service. 
Any virtue is a part of God. Who sees most of virtue 
sees most of God. Solomon saw the hem of His gar- 
ment. Isaiah saw Him. Christ J esus was the fullness 
of the Godhead incarnate. Morality is a shadow; 
philosophy is a likeness ; religion is a quickened, acting, 
conscious organism. He who is in morality, sleeps, 
He who is in philosophy, dreams. He who is in Christ 
Jesus is wide awake, clothed and in his right mind. 
Morality is in religion as ten is in one hundred, but re- 



46 



SERMONS. 



ligion is not in morality, as one hundred is not in ten. 
Morality and philosophy were in Christ, but atonement 
and remission of sin, and union of man with God, are 
not in morality and philosophy. Atonement and remis- 
sion of sin, and self-sacrifice, were here before Christ 
came; but philosophy never found them. The prophets 
saw them, and saw the need of somebody to tell us of 
them; the longing heart of man felt the need of sacri- 
fice, and longed for Him who was to come. Moses and 
the prophets did not reveal them, but only revealed 
Him who should reveal them. Christ was the only 
revealer of true religion, of the causes whence all 
good cometh, of the love of God, of God Himself. In 
Him center all the laws which constitute wisdom, and 
on which the universe is built. In your lantern blaze 
only they who stand around it see the light, but the 
sun shines upon the tallest tree and the humblest blade, 
upon the atom of sand and the measureless mountain. 
The philosopher is for the few, but Christ Jesus reaches 
the humblest and the highest. There is no antagonism 
between a Christian and a moral man, only the higher 
always longs to bless and lift the lower, even as God 
longs to lift and bless a world. Morality, like all weak- 
ness, thinks it is something; religion, like true wisdom, 
knows that as compared with God it is nothing. Reli- 
gion embraces philosophy and morality; hence you find 
them both in Christ; hence both are insisted on in a 
Christian life; hence he who hath not these hath not 
seen Christ. How lame and lost therefore is that Church 
or Christian whose life is not even up to the claims of 
natural religion. If the light that is in thee be dark- 
ness how great is the darkness ! Better a man should 
have natural religion than nothing, but better he should 



WISDOM, 47 

have Christ, for then he hath all. Morality and phil- 
osophy are on the road to religion^but religion without 
morality and philosophy is a misnomer. It is only the 
beginning of the outer darkness. 

Here, then, you see you have an authority set up — 
"the wise and their dark sayings" — dark to those who 
do not know how to see them — Jesus Christ above them 
all, most reliable of all, but darkest of all to those who 
have "no ear to hear." It has long been said "Wisdom 
dwelleth in a well." The deepest of all wells is that in 
which the wisdom of Jesus Christ resides. The query 
arises — we have the sayings of the wise; we have the 
sayings of Christ written plainly out, to which we can 
all go; many go there; all Christians pretend to go 
there;, they pretend to be wise — Bo they all interpret 
alike? Do you see no reason why they differ? Which 
one are you to hear? Well, why do you wish to hear 
any one? There is the Word — Christ Jesus himself. 
There is the record, as plain for you as for the Pope. 
You have a reason — you ought to have; you have a 
moral sense — you ought to have! In them you have 
the trinity, which constitutes the unity of authority. 
Suppose you have no mind; suppose you have no moral 
sense; ah, my brother, without them you are lost. Then 
you take what the Church tells you. ' Again — which 
Church? You cannot know any question till you know 
all sides of the question. You cannot have an opinion 
till you know the opposite opinion. Even if you are 
sincere in accepting your belief, that will not make your 
belief right. You may be worse off because you are 
sincere. You must use your judgment in some degree 
at last ; and if there is danger with our wisest thought, 
what must there be where there is no thought at all? 



SERMONS. 



If you must have an authority, as, indeed, you must, why 
interpose a veil between you and the authority. "Thy 
word is truth." "If any man lack wisdom let him ask 
of God," &c. Why employ a medium when } r ou are a 
medium yourself? Besides, to use an illustration, in 
what sense have you seen Niagara Falls — if you have 
only heard a man tell what he saw? 

Do you see the inevitable duty to which this whole 
thing points?— personal, individual culture; thought, 
prayer, silence; much hearing, much reading, exertion 
to understand; self-discipline, soul-edification. Solomon 
puts wisdom in the seeing; Christ puts it in the seeing 
and the doing. Do you see how, if heaven is ever to 
be heaven, there must be true vision and true action 
in every soul, or else we have only such another world 
as we have here. . Do you see how this implies much 
striving. Do you recollect Christ said, "He that hears 
these sayings of mine and cloeth them is a wise man." 
He who hears not and does not, is not a wise man. Do 
you remember the Spirit said to John, "Nothing could 
enter heaven that could deceive or make a Ee;" that had 
any tendency that way. And, again— of the saved — 
"These are they who came up," &e. And, again— 
" Straight is the gate and narrow is the road," &c. You 
believe in Christ, do you? What — without understand- 
ing Him? — with minds playing with bubbles; with time 
to throw away; with affections set upon earthly things — 
not yet up to high moralities — minds not attuned to 
high philosophies; not companions for those who walk 
in high thought and grand meditation; going to heaven! 
and are not yet masters of the bare rudiments of a 
heavenly life; a candidate for the prize! and yet not 
only not winning the race, but not running at all,. Is 



WISDOM. • 49 

heaven so cheap? Is life a toy? Can God be bribed? 
Will mercy let you in, when ingratitude and folly de- 
spised what mercy sent to prepare you for admission? 
Oh, brethren, the man, or the Church, which dictates to 
you what you shall believe is not your friend. The 
man, or the Church, which tells you, without true wisdom 
you can enter heaven, deludes you. Christ said not so. 
Without the foundation of wisdom underneath, he said, 
your house is gone. The Churches cannot make a religion. 
Religion is not merely joining a Church. You have 
something to do. Papal authority, episcopacy, baptism., 
election, all have their reality somewhere, but that where 
is not where it pretends to be. You want to see the 
realities which the Churches only dimly represent. You 
want to be above the priest or the actor, who only offici- 
ally grinds out what has been handed down to him. 
Men are forever, and everywhere, tending toward that 
which is mere body and mere sense. All the reforma- 
tions that have ever been, have been against that which 
was only sensuous. Christ and the wise are forever 
protest ant. They protest against man's becoming a mere 
toy, a mere babe, or merely animal. Ever?/ man will 
take the best religion of which he is capable, but no man 
ought to be capable of simply the lowest. No wise 
man ever has any quarrel against any man. But is that 
any reason why we should not have the highest religion 
possible ? Because we believe every man to be sincere, 
is that a reason why we should believe every man to be 
right? If every faculty we have is capable of cultiva- 
tion, if we are creatures of education and are capable 
of educating our children, if we can have, and do have, 
influence over each other, is there not glory in making 
influence and education of the highest type possible? 



50 



SERMONS. 



What kills the Church is, that so many called teachers 
do not see the truth, nor wisdom. They hut echo the 
echoes. They pander to the times. We are always 
mixing things up too much with men, with Churches, 
with narrow causes, with temporal things; hence we are 
slain by our prejudices. The Athenians stumbled at 
Socrates; the Jews at Christ. They could not hear. 
True wisdom is to be above all mere accidents. Every 
age ought to have a broad manhood. Other ages have 
longed for it. Our age demands it. But where is the 
catholic man? The Christian should be that man. The 
Christian is that man. The coming age will demand 
him more than ours. We want breadth and depth and 
strength in our families, in our schools, in our churches, 
in our society. We are not teaching our children to 
think. They see too much narrowness in us all. Shall 
they fill up the measure of their fathers? We need to 
live more widely, less exclusively, less clannishly. We 
need to be better observers, better readers, better 
listeners, and so better judges. Our one want to- 
day is, up and down earnestness with ourselves. Our 
one duty is, mental and moral culture. We have all 
the elements. There is Christ; there is ourselves; 
there is our work. The wise will hear and will under- 
stand. They shall inherit glory. 



THE SAMARITAN LEPER. 

Luke 11 : 17. — And Jesus answering, said, were there not ten cleansed? 
But where are the nine? 

• Our Lord was, in all probability, on His last journey 
toward Jerusalem. Somewhere along the road, He 



THE SAMARITAN LEPER, 



51 



encounters ten men that were lepers — ten human 
beings in the last degree unfortunate and miserable. It 
would appear that they had heard of Christ. The repu- 
tation of the great healer had gone before Him. These 
men, standing afar off, as the law required, cried out to 
Him to have mercy on them. He bid them go show 
themselves to the priests, and it came to pass as they 
went they were healed. And one of them, when he saw 
that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice 
glorified God, and fell clown on his face at the feet of 
Christ, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 
"And Jesus answering, said, were there not ten cleansed, 
but where are the nine? There are not found that 
returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And 
He said to Him, arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath 
made thee whole." 

Each particular feature of this record is peculiarly 
suggestive and instructive. Yet, before we enter upon 
the particulars, there are some thoughts which are 
suggested by it as a whole. The healing power of 
Jesus was not only wonderful in itself, but He was 
wonderful in the exercise of it, There was about Him 
a strange ease, an instant readiness, a natural uncon- 
sciousness of anything extraordinary, even in His most 
wonderful works. There is no sameness in His method, 
no formal preliminaries, no set routine. The time, the 
individual, the circumstances, find their exact counter- 
part in the action He spontaneously adopts. We feel 
that no action to Him would have been impossible. He 
cures ten as easily as one, but whether one or ten there 
is the same unconsciousness about Him. He makes 
no additions to His claims. He is as accessible after 
three years of this work, as when He first began. He 



52 



SERMONS. 



is still poor and still humble, and the poorest and hum- 
blest have in Him still a brother. They feel it. 

This is very natural. If we admit Jesus to be the 
son of God, we expect all this. There can be no dis- 
cord in that which is divine. If the divine power were 
there to work the miracles, then that power could not 
be officiously obtrusive. All that is divine is simple. 
All that is true is unpretending. But this power being 
there, the question might arise : Why did not Christ 
adopt some other plan of exercising that power. He 
unquestionably came to convince us of His Messiahship. 
His line of convin cement involved all merciful works. 
" Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard." 
That was needful for John, but nothing short of it could 
have convinced this world. It was worthy of God to lift 
us up out of our distresses, to heal all our woes. Why, 
then, did He not make His healing instantly universal? 
Why did he not stand at the Temple in Jerusalem, and 
heal at once, by a word, all that were afflicted in Israel? 
Would it not have been more august? Would it not 
more effectually have staggered high priest and scribes? 
Would it not have sent a thrill of life throughout the 
land, which would have told every heart the long ex- 
pected Christ had come? One would imagine so. That 
would have been our way of doing it — our way of failing 
to do it. But there, again, God was true to Himself. 
Even the miracles cannot be without law. Even if a 
great pronouncement had been made at Jerusalem, and 
every leper in Israel had been instantly released, the 
effect would have been but temporary. What we have 
in common we cease to be thankful for. Every day of 
health is a great gift from God, as rich and blessed as 
that first day' to the grateful leper when he found him- 



THE SAMARITAN LEPER, 53 

self cured. But we are not thankful. That which costs 
us nothing is worth little to us. That which costs us 
much we value in proportion. God might heal all the 
sickness in this whole world to-day, but then there would 
be more sickness to-morrow. If God healed all every 
day He would have more and more every day to heal, 
for we should, instead of being thankful, only every day 
be more reckless, till God's apparent goodness would 
ruin us. We should never learn and never be wise. 
We trifle with God now; we should insult Him then. 
The race can be gathered to God, not by any coercion, 
but one by one, by voluntary attraction. God's good 
gifts are for those who seek them. None can know 
God's goodness but those who come directly to God for 
it, and God gives to those who come, in precisely the 
way that best suits them — the way that makes itself 
most impressive to them. Hence Christ's unsameness 
in His ministrations. He meets each heart. He 
responds to that according to the degree of its yearning, 
whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Ten are cleansed — 
nine want nothing more than bodily comfort; one wants 
a Saviour. What we ask for we have. What we seek 
we find. When we knock it is opened to us. Under 
a grand pronouncement from Jerusalem, we should have 
had what we thought was a God — what we worship now 
too often, distantly, fearfully — but we should have had 
no brother, no being literally to bear our sorrows, and 
carry our burdens. We should have had no Father. 
We should have been criminals, not prodigals. God so 
came to us as really to come to us, the lowliest, most 
wretched. That was like God. That is the wonderful- 
ness of the wonderful works of Jesus. You can come 



54 



SERMONS, 



to Him, any of you that will come. Christ is a brother; 
God is a Father; we are His children. 

There were ten of these lepers. Ten was a sort of 
perfect number among the Jews. Ten men might con- 
stitute a synagogue — an assembly. It was the unit of 
church organization. How these ten assume at once a 
representative character ! How like this human race ! 
Every day we cry to God for blessing; every day God 
looks clown and blesses. Having what we want, every 
day we forget to be grateful. That same Saviour gave 
Himself a ransom for many — died to release us from 
the fearful leprosy of sin. How few there are who turn 
back to find Him — to fall at His feet in thankfulness — 
to devote life to Him in a true acknowledgment of Him 
before men — a benefactor and Saviour. Still Gocl blesses 
us. His mercies are new to us every morning, and 
fresh every evening. Be our hearts what they may, 
He is true to Himself. Be we Jew or Gentile, His all- 
yearning love and benevolence are the same. Jesus 
does not pledge these lepers to come back to Him. His 
mercy is unconditional. If a sense of love do not touch 
the heart, then no pledges can reach it. He yearned as 
much to bless their souls as their bodies — even more. 
He blessed their bodies, if possible to reach their souls. 
He does not refuse to do the less, because they will not 
accept the greater. They do not confess Him at all, 
except in that selfishness which to Him must have been 
painful. But He said nothing about it. How natural 
their desire to be healed— and how much better, too, it 
would be for them to be relieved of their woe. Jesus 
felt it. Possibly to lift them out of bodily degradation 
would be to elevate them in their moral being. Christ 
deemed the experiment worth the trial. Did He give 



THE SAMARITAN LEPER, 



5n 



us no great lesson in that ? We have not always acted, 
and do not now always act with the wisdom of Christ. 
We make distinctions between men. We refuse some- 
times to do men good in a lower degree, because we 
cannot clo them good in the highest degree. It is a 
comparatively recent thing that we have been trying to 
save men's bodies, in the hope at last of saving their 
souls. Men have organized temperance societies and 
houses of reform, and orphan homes and public schools. 
Some good men pretend to think they cannot help such 
agencies- — there is no religion in them — men should go 
to church and be Christians; that will do for all men all 
they want. We will not lift them at all, because we 
cannot lift them as high as we would, as high as they 
ought to be. Their very need of help is a reason why 
they should not have it. Our argument virtually says : 
If they were Christians, then we would like to do some- 
thing for them, but because these means are outside the 
church, and have no religion in them, we cannot touch 
them. As if it were more religious to stand still and 
do nothing, than it would be to go to work hand and 
heart to do all the good that can be done. Is a man 
nearer to God in soberness than in drunkenness — then 
it is our duty by any means to lift him into soberness. 
Is a man better off with a secular education, than in 
ignorance, with all the ills attendant, in the shape of 
vice and crime — then it is our duty by the most efficient 
means to give him the highest practicable education. 
If we are in the Church, and are religious, then religion 
and the Church make it our bounclen duty. Suppose 
the Saviour could have clone nothing for us, till we came 
up to His standard, then we could not have known He 
was a Saviour. In giving man the less, we prepare him 



56 



SERMONS. 



to receive the greater* Christ's merciful action, out of 
ten, saved one. That one was worth the saving. 

Beside — what is the meaning of that command: "Go 
shoiu yourselves unto the priests!" On another occasion, 
when Christ had cured a man He hid him go show him- 
self to the priests and offer the money for his cleansing, 
as Moses cammanded, for a testimony unto them. It was 
their office to declare a man cured, and by outward 
ablutions and ceremonies to restore him to the privilege 
of church communion. Over and above that it was 
their business, or ought to have been, to find out who. 
or what had effected the cure, to make known that 
agency ayid bring other men under its power. The 
appearance of a healed man before the priests was a 
testimony unto them, that a great healer was among 
them. They ought to have been foremost of all men in 
inquiring who he was, what he was. They ought to 
have been foremost of all men in bringing Christ before 
the people, as a healer. That might have led to their 
acceptance of Him as a Messiah. It was unworthy their 
office, their very manhood, to stand — as we read in the 
Gospel for this day they did — stand and watch Him, and 
that only to find fault with Him. Losing the less, they 
also lost the greater. Duty demanded of them that 
they should lead. The people had a right to expect them 
to lead. The Saviour virtually said that to them in 
sending: those men there : and I think, when any as:encv 
clearly accomplishes good, and the testimony comes up 
to us, we are in duty bound to inquire into it, and make 
it do all the good we can. The world has the same 
claim upon us Christians that the Jewish people had 
upon the priests. We are all kings and priests unto 
God. Not an agency should appeal to us in vain. No 



THE SAMARITAN LEPER. 



57 



society which is in its nature benevolent, can in the 
nature of things be irreligious. If it have not all the 
religion in it that it ought to have, we of all men should 
try to put as much in it as we can. If we were more 
diligent in lifting mens bodies, we should be more 
successful in lifting their souls. Solemn considerations 
are every day multiplying to tell us we must be more 
diligent in such work than we have been, or by and by 
it will hardly be worth while to work even in the Church. 
If we let souls drift further and further from us, what 
hope can we have of at last embracing them. ? The 
Saviour's love and wisdom saved one. That one was 
worth saving, though he were a Samaritan. 1 

I confess, it makes me feel very uncomfortable, to 
read so often in the Gospel that these exceptions in 
goodness were Samaritans. It not only occurs in actual 
fact, but the Saviour himself, when He would relate an 
act of goodness, makes the exception. Did He mean 
i; to have a fling" at the Church? What absurd notions 
take possession of people sometimes ! When shall we 
be wiser than the Jews, and be able and willing to face 
the truth ? Can it be that our outward connection with 
the Church can have a tendency to make us mistake 
the internal verities? Is there any danger of our being- 
educated out of sincerity and truth into shadow and 
deception? The Jews were so educated. Their religion, 
if I may so speak, made them irreligious. They put 
prejudice for reason, and their notions for truth. May 
we not be like them? There must be danger some- 
where, or else the Saviour would not have put so much 
emphasis upon that thought. The question arises 
whether those nine who did not return were all Jews? 
Many of them must have been, or it would not have 

8 



58 



SERMONS. 



been remarkable that he who returned was a Samaritan. 
It is a wonder they would have had a Samaritan with 
them at all. It has been observed that, when a low 
country is overflowed, animals of varied dispositions, 
between which sometimes exist great antipathies, will 
collect upon a friendly island, and in the common mis- 
fortune forget all animosities and dwell together in 
peace. A common woe made these Jews and the 
Samaritan friends. How strange it is that all we — 
clustered upon this little globe — brethren in a common 
sin, in a universal misfortune — have not yet learned to 
love one another. But, to go back to those nine. If 
they were Jews, as they probably were, it would be 
interesting to know why they did not return. Where 
were the nine ? Was it all ingratitude ? Did the priests 
have anything to do with it? Did they say look out 
for that man; He is a heretic; He pronounces woes 
against us. How often do our prejudices make us mis- 
take our best friends! Oh, how often do we receive 
blessings from those we are ashamed of afterwards! 
How often does mere prejudice keep us back from the 
expression of a noble sentiment — cheat us out of nobility. 
Alas ! what an influence for evil we can have over each 
other sometimes. How strange that such power should 
be given to man! But since we have such a power, 
how true and noble we ought to be, that we might exer- 
cise it for one another's good! Christ was not popular, 
and these men had not the courage to be noble. It 
often happens so. But, then, it might not have been 
so with them. Possibly they did not go to the priests 
at all. Perhaps it was joy carried them off somewhere 
else. A leper was as one dead. Being healed, they 
thought of home, of wife and child, of father and 



THE SAMARITAN LEPER, 



59 



mother. Oh, yes, there are deep-rooted and God-im- 
planted natures within us. Men are not always as bad 
as they seem to be. The one longing for the old familiar 
faces eclipsed the emotions of gratefulness to Him who 
had set them free. It ought not so to have been. In 
going home, they ought not to have been able simply to 
tell they were healed of their leprosy; but that their 
souls had, in the presence of Jesus, drunk in the joys 
of a new and a higher life, so that they might bring their 
families and friends and say, "behold the Lamb of God," 
etc. And why did the Samaritan come back? There 
is ever a something to explain our actions. We are not 
naturally one very much better than another. Perhaps 
he had no home. He was restored to the world, and 
the world to Him was desolate. He could think of 
nobody but Jesus. He came back to Him and found 
relief in loving Him. In that love he found a new 
blessing. He felt not only his body healed, but his 
soul saved. If it were that he was in want of a home, 
we should say he was unfortunate. But how often do 
our misfortunes bring us to God. How very often does 
the removal of earthly joys cause us to find the heavenly. 
God is good in what He gives, and good in what He 
withholds. Would we only love Him all things would 
work together for our good. There were ten cleansed; 
we cannot tell what became of the nine ; the one came 
to Jesus; that one was saved. 

But the one thought we ought to draw from this record 
is, there are richer blessings with Jesus than those we 
seek anywhere else, or those we first seek even from 
Him. Our necessities, our misfortunes, cur carnal cra- 
vings, do not bring us to Him. They only cause us to 
cry out to Him, from afar. It is true, He is a ready 



60 



SERMONS, 



help, in all time of need; to all them that call upon Him, 
He hears and answers the call. We would be wise to 
do what He bids, even though, to all appearance, the 
doing can be of little good. If by His word He bids 
us submit, then there is blessing in submission. If by 
His providence He bids us go down to even deeper 
degrees of misfortune, then in every degree there is 
blessing. But we must get beyond this kind of coming. 
Such a coming is selfish. It is rooted in a desire to get 
rid of what we are, not to become what He is. What 
He is, is the real blessing. Grace and truth are with 
Him. Love and peace and safety are with Him. Wis- 
dom and knowledge and all virtue are with Him. Rich 
and sweet revealings for our spirits are with Him. For 
all this we must seek immediate access to Him — com- 
panionship with Him. You see, this is the point, if we 
obey Him; it will come to pass that as we go we shall 
be cleansed; we shall get rid of the old leprosy, old bad 
habits, old vices. But all that is merely negative. If 
religion do no more for us than that, it brings us up 
only to where we are nothing^ It is not bare morality we 
want, but religion. Morality is neither virtue nor vice, 
but the half-way house between. Morality is negative, 
religion is positive. It is not the absence of vice that 
God loves ; it is the presence of grace. It is not the 
absence of vice that makes heaven — it is not the absence 
of vice that can make us meet for the enjoyment of the 
saints in light — it is the presence of the spirit that was 
in Jesus; it is likeness to him. It is not that we would 
be unclothed, but "clothed upon;" as Paul says, "that 
mortality might be swallowed up of life." We must 
take heed, therefore, that as we go we be cleansed — 
not only so, but that we come back to Jesus, to receive 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 



61 



of His fullness; take heecl that we come hack, not in 
mere lip-service, but in active ministry. Holy action 
is the. language that God loves. He serves God who 
serves any good. Let us he sure we are doing that; 
not like the crowd which is thoughtless and preoccupied; 
but like the one grateful Samaritan. The way of service 
is the way of faith. By faith we shall be made whole. 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 

Daniel 6: 25, 26, 27. — Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations 
and languages, that dwell in all the earth, - Peace be multiplied unto you. 
I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear 
before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God and steadfast forever, and 
His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be 
even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and 
wonders, in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power 
of the lions.' 7 

You have heard this chapter read this morning, and 
there is, therefore, the less need of rehearsing the 
circumstances which resulted in this proclamation. It 
is impossible for us to dwell upon all the elements which 
combine in its antecedents, but there are one or two of 
them upon the face of the text worth considering, We 
have here the closing up of a remarkable series of 
events, the result of a controversy or persecution, 
interesting and instructive, view it in what light we 
will. Darius was wiser than he knew. He uttered a 
truth, of which, perhaps, he had himself only the re- 
motest conception. 

The first part is only court flourish, the mist and 



62 



SERMONS. 



nebulae in which princes reside — "Peace be unto you." 
This, no doubt, had in it much of a real wish. The 
empire over which Darius presided was large. The 
elements of strife in all empires are numerous. In this 
empire in particular, opportunities were being constantly 
presented for the exercise of personal ambition — the 
outbreak of passion. Things were far from being right 
anywhere, and consequently led of themselves to agita- 
tion. It was a sort of picture of this world. Things 
never can be at peace till they are right. The will of 
a king is nothing, if it be not wise. Peace is very 
desirable, but thrones must topple over, and kingdoms 
become extinct, till the will of man is the will of God. 

Darius did not know this. He says, "I make a 
decree." In one sense he had a right to make decrees. 
He was the decreeing power. But, what is a decree? 
What do we mean by saying he was the decreeing 
power? In the nature of things, in the order of provi- 
dence, God's will in human development gave power to 
three things — the family, the church, and the state. 
Originally, they were all three in one. Gradually they 
assumed distinctions, not differing in their nature, but 
only becoming better defined in their functions. They 
are all of them adjuncts of our social being. The indi- 
vidual is before them and above them. They cannot 
subvert, but only regulate. The nature of things con- 
templates human society. The nature of things con- 
templates these three offices. As they are the outgrowth 
of natural laws, they are themselves subject to natural 
laws. They are not arbitrary powers. They are only 
executive agencies. Gocl is the only law-giver, and His 
laws are inherent in things written in nature, to be found 
out by us and obeyed. The family, the church, and the 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 



63 



state, are but to administer God's laws. The parent 
has power in his family. No power can rob him of it. 
But whilst the parent has a right to command the child, 
he has the right to clo it only in things themselves right. 
There is a higher law, and a higher power. The higher 
law is justice, virtue, wisdom. The higher power is the 
child's individuality, the child's nature. The command 
to the child to honor the parent is a command to the 
parent to be honorable. He who gives command to a 
child to steal is outside of the law, and his command is 
no command at all. All office is simply to administer 
law, never to make it. Man's persistent folly is in try- 
ing to do it. Man is everywhere a servant, never a 
king. When he has found out the law it is his duty to 
publish it and see it obeyed. But the majesty of the 
individual man God has made inviolable. Accountability 
to Himself alone is the prime decree of nature. 

What applies to one natural office applies to all 
natural offices. What is true in this respect relative 
to the family, is also true relative to the church and the 
state. The human race has in every age recognized 
the facts and acted upon them. Man has always had 
a sort of natural sense of his individual manhood. 
Nature has compelled him to claim some natural rights, 
so far as he was a creature governed. But, on the other 
side, so far as he has been a creature governing, he has, 
till within a period comparatively recent, had no idea 
that he owed any duties even to himself, or was in any 
way responsible to a superior power. For many ages, 
in all departments of our economy, man imagined he 
was supreme. He contemplated himself an arbitrary 
agent, to will and to do as his caprice suggested — his 
ignorance dictated. Man thought not of nature, not of 



64 



SERMONS. 



laws above him, not of -a great machinery of which he 
was only a part. This was the mistake of endless 
generations. Men thought they could create science. 
Men have lost their lives for asserting nature. The 
discovery of the fact that man must conform to law, 
was as much of a discovery as that of laws themselves — 
of gravitation, of electricity. Indeed, it was this dis- 
covery which led to all other discovery. Bacon declared, 
man had, till his time, been attempting the impossible, 
trying to be a law. His wisdom must henceforth be, 
to find out the law that is, and conform to that. His 
conformity thereto has led him to all we now call our 
modern civilization. Bacon saw the spirit of things — 
that which pervades, controls, produces. Newton saw 
it — Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe— men of science must 
see it. But, it is a recent thins: that we have learned 
there is a spirit in society, a spirit in church — a power 
over and above all mere signs of power — that nature 
holds in mind and morals, in communities and masses of 
men; that we are to conform to nature — there, as every- 
where; that what does not conform to nature— i. e., to 
right — -is no law, and never can be a law. 

You, therefore, see what a decree is. God decrees. 
He — only! The world could not stand if any other 
agencj^ could decree. Man often uses big, swelling 
words — "I make a decree." In one sense, Darius could 
make no decree. No power upon earth can. All that 
any power upon earth can do in church or state, is to 
promulgate what is decreed. Blessed is the power that 
finds that out. Darius had made another of his decrees 
before this. For thirty days he had set himself up as 
God. For thirty days he had dethroned all power, and 
swept away the human conscience. Was that a decree? 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 



65 



Could it by any possibility be a decree that had any 
force binding a real man? Whence did it proceed? It 
proceeded of envy, hatred and malice, of pride and un- 
reason and folly. It proceeded of royal weakness, of 
the betrayal by Darius, himself, of the trust committed 
to him. If he had power to put his princes afterwards 
in the lion's den, he had power to resist those princes 
at first Who was this Daniel, who cared nothing for 
the king's decree? A prime minister — a Godly man — > 
a strange thing, indeed, in prime ministers — a man not 
over fond of office, evidently, for he risks the favor of 
royalty, an imperial spirit, a man to give laws. His 
situation is peculiar. He is a stranger — -not among his 
own people — he stands alone— where His God is un- 
known — where all the customs differ from anything he 
had been taught. He might possibly be mistaken in 
his religion. At any rate, according to our philosophy, 
being among Romans he ought to do as the Romans 
did. Was it not better he should yield now, for the 
sake of a higher influence afterwards? At any rate, 
what is the use of a quarrel? What good can a contro- 
versy do ? Can fidelity to his own conscience, at which 
the king and his princes would laugh, be productive of 
any happy results? Why not make a mental reser- 
vation; ask nothing of anybody; say nothing of his 
opinions ; shut his doors and windows and say his 
prayers at night? Thirty days would not last long. It 
is true an excellent spirit was in "him, and he got it out 
of his religion, as all men with true principle in them 
are always head and shoulders, in everything, ahead of 
those who have no principle. But could he not have 
just as much principle at the end of thirty days ? Could 
he not bury his manhood, and then dig it up again, and 



66 SERMONS. 

have it all the fresher for the rest it had had? He could 
not expect to give laws to a kingdom, and even if he 
could, that was no way to do it. Would it not be better 
to hold on to his office — secure that, at all costs? He 
thought not? He saw the royal displeasure ; the enmity 
of the princes; the lion's den; the end of power; the 
scorn of the populace; the triumph of wrong; but, 
above them all, he saw God, the real and true God. He 
saw his own manhood. He saw fidelity and loyalty to 
himself. He saw his own individuality — the majesty 
of private judgment — he felt the dignity of the highest 
of all endowments, the human conscience. It was better 
to be eaten by lions, than to lose his self-respect, to 
die within himself, to be a coward and an enemy of God. 

Now, I hear some of you ask : " What ! do you advo- 
cate the idea that each man is to be the judge of any 
and all laws he is called upon to obey ? Does not this 
set up private judgment above all the powers that be ? 
Does it not introduce an individual power, above an 
aggregated power ?" Call it what you will, I assert the 
power of individual consciousness, fidelity to the moral 
sense, integrity to one's own soul, above all the earthly 
powers that are, or ever were, or ever will be ; I not only 
assert the supremacy of such a power, but the absolute 
duty of every man to exercise it. You ask again, does 
not existence in a family, in a church, in a state, imply 
certain reciprocal relations and duties, one of which is 
obedience ? Yes, but the obedience is to the higher 
law first, and that too by both sides. He is the best 
citizen who stands against the wrong power, or the wrong 
law. But if we enter into a contract, ought we not to 
keep the terms even though they were to our own hurt ? 
Yes, if we make a contract we should by all means keep 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 



67 



the terms, unless some development should reveal a 
moral wrong, and then a contract should be made to do 
away the old contract. And that is the reason why 
magna chartas and constitutions and contracts of all 
sorts are constantly being amended and must needs be 
amended. But the family, the church and the date, are 
not of the nature of private or voluntary contracts. They 
are natural conditions. Every individual citizen has as 
much interest in the state as the king himself. Every 
member of the church as much right as a whole coun- 
cil. If I enter a given circle of society, or a given fra- 
ternity, and do not like it, I can leave it. They are 
artificial ; I can find or form another to my taste. But 
my church and my country are my heritage, part of my 
birthright. No man has a right, nor no body of men, 
to take it from me. He who leaves the one or the other 
for the sake of ease, or any selfish end, is unworthy of 
both. God will cut him off from all trust. He is not 
fit to live. But observe, the church and the state have 
the right, in a certain sense, to make their laws, any 
laws, wise or foolish as they please. I mean they have 
the power, and since we are finite creatures, that im- 
plies unwise law as well as wise. They have the right 
in the same sense that a man has the right to cut his 
throat, or to do any other foolish act. They have the 
right also to enforce their law. If any man in the maj- 
esty of his individuality, transgresses or defies the law, 
they have the right to inflict the penalty, and that is 
the very point, the individual is bound to submit. Mind 
you, I do not say, bound to obey the law, but in diso- 
beying it, bound to submit to the penalty. And in all 
the history of the ages, the men of God have universally 
submitted. Daniel raised no insurrection. He called 



68 



SERMONS. 



not upon any man to lift a hand against the king. Eli- 
jah,, Isaiah. Jeremiah, they resisted not. Paul said: 
" Honor the king, obey the laws." But when the laws 
said curse Christ or die. he said, very well I will die. I 
ask you to mark the fact, how in all the ages, men of 
God have arisen against the wrong, and the wrong has 
run over them. What I tell you to-day is not a spec- 
ulation. All history attests its truth. The Apostles 
called upon no man to make a tumult. Huss and Cran- 
mer, they went to the stake. Over all, more glorious 
than any, Jesus Christ went to the cross. He was the 
incarnation of this idea. When the Jews said thou shalt 
not do a work of mercy on the Sabbath, he said, your 
canon is no law, I am not bound to obey it. He told 
the disciples, blessed are ye when they cast you out of 
the synagogue, when you are brought to confront kings 
and rulers for my name's sake. And when the Apostles 
were confronted by councils and powers, they said, we 
must obey God, not men. The religion of Jesus, faith 
in the true God, that has made real men and overspread 
the earth of whatever truth there is upon it. This law 
accounts for all the dungeons and all the racks and 
inquisitions and stakes and crosses that have eyer been, 
and we count them glorious who suffer. We honor 
Daniel ; we honor Elijah ; we honor Paul and the Apos- 
tles. Our instincts do homage to the souls of such men. 
In them we have life ; above all, we worship Christ ; in 
Him was life. Yes, you are bound to suffer, as you are 
bound to resist all evil. This principle account's for all 
that is truly heroic in man. It is the very essence of 
noble character. Without understanding it, no youngs 
man can form a proper character • no man can have a 
character that can stand the test of temptation and trial. 



THE FIDELITY OF DAXIEL. 



69 



If the thing involved in the private judgment he wrong 
then it will die. because the individual judgment may 
err. But if it be right it will commend itself to the 
human sense of right in its broadest sense and so pre- 
vail. That is why any good prevails ; that is why our 
Christianity prevailed. When it does prevail and the 
larger number, or a large number in church or state stand 
together, then other laws come in, not different but addi- 
tional, but till that point arrives, the individual con- 
science is supreme and the duty of submission is imper- 
ative. Of course, if we make a mistake we make it to 
our cost. But God's children do not often make mis- 
takes, because the persecution of the world causes them 
to define every step before they take it. 

But you ask again, does not such a law tend to pro- 
duce confusion, lead to controversy, to convulsion and 
anarchy ? Yes, my friend, it leads to controversy and 
convulsion — even to confusion to those whose eyes 
are not yet opened, to all the zeros, the mere nobodies, 
but never to anarchy. Does not the thunder storm come- 
down with its blackness, with its torrent, with its battle- 
din, with its death ? But is it not better there should 
be thunder storms ? How serene and pure is that sky 
which hath been so scrubbed and washed, till to gaze 
upon it is to feel a new life ! The winter lies all uni- 
form and frigid. The spring comes and heaves, till 
buds swell and burst, and nature is changed. A new 
life goes forcing itself up behind the bark through every 
limb and twig and leaf. The old bark cracks and falls 
away but the tree grows. Is it not well ? Yes, con- 
troversies and convulsions come, and they come because 
God lives, because He hath not left us, but communes 
with man, and man with God. Jesus Christ lives, lives 



70 



SERMONS. 



in spirit, lives in principle, lives in example, lives in his 
resistance to sin and evil. His footsteps at last in con- 
sequence traced in blood, but because He lives we shall 
live also. He showed men how to live and how to die, 
and because He showed us that, we have all the moral 
beauty which blesses our race and shall have more. 
Souls believe in Him, and they that believe in Him take 
up the cross and deny themselves and follow Him. As 
the world treated Him, so it treats all that believe in 
Him. But be not dismayed when you hear the servants 
of God falsely spoken of, when you see their names cast 
out as evil; when you see them condemned and cast 
among the lions ; be not alarmed, God hath not forsaken 
us, and He never will. It is by these moral contro- 
versies and convulsions that men live. It is by these 
prophets, these seers, these men that see God, we learn 
who and what God is. 

It is true, "He delivereth andrescueth. He worketh 
signs and wonders in heaven and earth, who delivered 
Daniel from the power of the lions. He is the living 
God and steadfast forever, and his kingdom that which 
shall not be destroyed." But how did Darius know 
that ? He only knew it when Daniel had gone into the 
lion's den — when the lions had their mouths sealed and 
Daniel had received no hurt. That is the way God pro- 
claims himself — proclaims where He is. 

What was it which set up our Christian faith and 
made it victorious over Roman power — over the gates 
of pagan wickedness? It was the cross of Christ. It 
was the martyrdom of the saints. That attested the 
sincerity and purity of the spirit within them, and 
Christian man, when you are dying, receiving the pelt- 
ings of this unsanctified world, I tell you, you are glor- 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 



71 



ifying God ; you see there your duty and your privilege. 
What was it that made the Reformation successful? — 
what was it that made the people rally round Luther 
and Knox and Cranmer ? What was it that went with 
Wesley and made of one poor man a multitude, in num- 
ber as the stars of heaven ? I tell you it was God with 
them, and it was the cross in them, that conquered. It 
was Jesus in those men. He is verily the light of the 
world, and he that folio weth Him shall not walk in dark- 
ness hut shall have the light of life. They continued 
in the truth and the truth at last made them free. Ah, 
brethren, you have worshipped here to-day in peace and 
quiet and you do not know the lion's dens — the racks 
and flames — the lives and deaths, your security has 
cost. I very much fear many of you do not care to 
know. There was an instinct in Darius which said: 
"Nothing but the hand of Daniel's God could have accom- 
plished this work." There is an instinct in the human 
heart which looks upon results and says : " Only a true 
God can accomplish such work." You can look back 
upon history to-day and tell where God has been as 
plainly as if an angel with a trumpet proclaimed it from 
heaven. But what if you look around this world to-day 
and ask where God is? That is what concerns us. The 
proclamation is not made by Darius, but made by the 
living God — a decree for all time and all eternity, more 
stable than the laws of the Medes and Persians — that 
men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. Do 
we do it ? This God of Daniel is the one true God, 
whom we think we have as our Gocl. But other statutes 
than His are set up. His altars are deserted. The 
people have gone away after other gocls. Our statutes 
come from Paris — come from our pockets — come from 



72 



SERMONS. 



our pleasures — from our fears — from ecclesiastic coun- 
cils — from church circles and social circles. It is most 
truly alarming that we have no longer any real men ; 
men with opinions of their own ; men with moral forti- 
tude enough to stand up for the right. Some men would 
not have an opinion for anything less than a whole y ear's 
salary in advance, and then, ten to one, have a wrong 
one. The world says do this, and we do it. Our inter- 
ests say do that, and we do it. We can accept no pen- 
alties, not even the frown of some poor silly creature 
who only frowns at all that is wise. We want to go to 
heaven " in flowery ease, while others fought to win the 
prize and sailed through bloody seas." The least little 
puff upon the surface alarms us. We shiver because 
there is likely to be a breeze. The bones of society are 
out of joint. Nothing, not even human life, is any 
longer sacred. We are playing family and playing 
church and playing state. The whole fabric of our 
economy is falling about our heads. Not a hand is 
raised to stay the woe : or, where it is raised, they who 
ought to sustain it are the first to raise a cry against it 
and go forth to cut it down. Our children are father- 
less and motlierless. The pews in our churches preach 
to our ministers. The people take all laws into their 
own hands. We princes whom God hath set over the 
kingdom are bent upon our little schemes of ambition 
and pride and vanity. When a Daniel rises- — a man in 
whom is an excellent spirit — we demand that a new law 
be made against him — that he be cast into the den of lions. 
But, brethren, the Lord God liveth. His dominion is 
that which shall not be destroyed. Darius is nothing. 
The princes are nothing. The lions are nothing, except 
this — the penalty of God's outraged law is this: they 



THE FIDELITY OF DANIEL. 



73 



who fall upon It may be broken; they upon whom it 
shall fall, shall be ground to powder. The lions may 
frighten but shall not hurt Daniel. They shall tear in 
pieces those who subjected Daniel to their power. 

The one want of our world to-day is Christians, real 
men and women with souls of their own, to resist the 
laws of the world, to scorn the frowns of the worldly. 
We do not know the power of character. The world 
is languishing for some strong center around which to 
rally. The one want to-day is sterling Christian char- 
acter. I tell you, there is more of the world In our faith, 
than there is of our faith in the world. Christian char- 
acter is wanted in the street, in our schools, in our 
parlors, at our work. If we could hare it in our churches 
even, it would revolutionize the wolid. The kingdoms 
and nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, 
•would hear of our God, and then there would fee peace. 
The world would be pure and right, and that would end 
our woes. In the kingdom above are no powers other 
than God's, no statutes, no canons, no more letter, no 
kings like Darius, no shadows. We shall all be kings 
and princes, reading God's statute books, even as now. 
Each soul there is a law to Itself, because its individu- 
ality is complete, its laws are God's decrees. Hence 
those who cannot read, cannot enter the kingdom. Each 
soul that enters there is free — not in bondage to any 
soul. The soul that is not in that freedom, must pass 
away to any bondage it has chosen. I exhort you 
to-day, brethren, to seek a strong individuality— this 
freedom that is of God. Free yourselves from the 
bondage of prejudice, of custom, of cant. Stand in the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. It will 
give you trouble, but it will give you evidence that you. 



74 



SERMONS. 



are a child of God. Young man, young woman, where 
do you intend to stand? What do you intend to be? 
Is it not better to die with Christ than to live with the 
world? Brethren, all, what have we to do? Where is 
our cross? If God should ask us to-day could we tell? 
We have an idea that sickness, bereavement, disappoint- 
ment, is cross; so it is, but it is negative cross, and 
very often the result of our having no real cross of 
Christ. Our religion is positive and active. Is our 
coming here and worshipping, a cross ? Is our enjoyment 
of such civilization as we have, a cross? Is it any cross 
to deny ourselves what never did anybody good ? Is it 
a cross merely to put on the name of Christ? Some 
people talk as if it were. But a real cross is, to think 
what is right, in all our sphere of life, and stand up for 
that. A true cross is to demand that God alone be truly 
worshipped, and to worship Him ourselves in word and 
deed, in sincerity and truth. Let us pray to God for 
His spirit, that we may awake to a higher life, and be 
reckoned at last by Daniel's God, with Daniel and all 
the children of that kingdom which shall know no end. 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 

John i : 4, 5. — In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And 
the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. 

There is no text in the Bible which is not sublimely 
comprehensive. But there are texts vastly more com- 
prehensive than others. There are texts which admit 
of dissection — of logical expression. But there are texts 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



75 



the rays of which cheer and warm us ; we feel their 
influence at every step of life. We long to approach 
them; to open them; to look into their depths ; yet, 
when we make the attempt we are baffled in every ex- 
ertion. Like one who would grasp the atmosphere, we 
embrace with all our might, but the closer our embraces 
the more we perceive we have nothing. And yet in 
these texts there is life. They are the expression of 
highest truths ; we live in them and have our being 
by them. This opening passage of St. John is one of 
these texts ; yet, infinite as it is, I tremble that I have 
touched it. Nevertheless, through this Advent Season it 
has been running in my mincl. " The divine Word " — 
the Revelation of God — came to man : " In Him was 
life. The life was the light of men. The light shineth 
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not." 

One of our mistakes, in contemplating the Gospel, 
has been, to limit the application of the terms we em- 
ploy — not so much to define as unwisely to localize. 
We wrap things up in names, and then tie the names to 
isolated facts. For manhood, we read the Jew — for Mes- 
siah, the incarnation — for atonement, the simple fact of 
crucifixion, and so, all the way through. These ideas 
should be extended, in some sense reversed. For Jew, 
we should read mankind. The Messiah we should see 
throughout time, particularly in the prophets ; the 
atonement, in the whole incarnation, in that which was 
antecedent to the incarnation, the nature of God. With 
God no fact is isolated — no part of being is separated 
from any other part. From the providence which takes 
care of oxen, up to that in which archangels minister, 
He is One. The lower being — the mineral, the vegeta- 
ble, the fish, the brute animal — are not a separate being 



7C 



SERMONS. 



from the higher* the. man, the niind, the spirit, the angel. 
The universe is an infinite circle— start in either direc- 
tion you come to God, Take any fact, the most minute, 
and that in itself is the center of an infinity. No fact, 
not even the lowest, is yet Mown to man. There is more 
in a grain of sand than we have discovered. God is 
the last center, the sum ; the substance, the animate and 
animating essence of all that is. The knowledge of what 
is, is the knowledge of God. That knowledge is life to 
the being that has it. Life is, therefore, proportioned 
to knowledge, He that hath it, is in his degree a light. 
Christ had it absolutely. He was, therefore, Life. His 
manifestation made Him a light to mankind, 

The universe is matter and spirit. They are not sep- 
arated. They cannot be separated. Matter is made 
for spirit ; spirit is made for matter. They are the two 
sides of the same thing. Spirit is the essence to con- 
template. Matter is the essence to be contemplated. 
Matter, to itself, does not exist at all. The stone has 
210 consciousness. It knows nothing of you or me. 
Spirit is conscious being, Its real being is proportioned 
to its consciousness, Your soul and mine are not co-equal. 
You and I gaze upon nature, upon the stars. I behold 
but a waving shrub or a twinkling orb. You are rapt in 
thought, which lifts you to where angels bow. Christ 
penetrated all being. His consciousness was infinite. 
In Him was life. He was manifested for our advantage, 
that we might increase in divine consciousness! and so 
was the light of men. 

This touches the* idea of soul. We imagine that 
soul is an organism, fixed and invariable with definite 
parts and powers ; one soul equal to another ; a something 
to which something may be given, as clothes to our bodies. 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. . 77 

or an estate to a man. In this way we have a miscon- 
ception of even ~body itself, What is body ? It is not foot 
nor hand, nor arm, nor trunk. What is foot, or hand ? 
Is it bone, or muscle or blood ? If so, then even the 
blood that is in the foot passes to the hand, and that in 
the hand to the foot. To-day there is muscle and bone 
in our limbs which is thin air to-morrow and passing 
into other muscles and bones. Is the body the senses ? 
seeing, tasting, hearing, feeling ? Then to-morrow the 
eye is closed, the hand is palsied, and there is just that 
much less of body. To get to a true idea of body, you 
must go off to ideas of that which seems to have no body, 
Body is heart action— stomach assimilating food, blood 
circulating. Body is sensation, activity, strength.— 
Body is an abstraction, health. Whoever has that, has 
bodily life — a body. Whoever has it not, has death— 
not a body. So much less body in proportion as he has 
it not, and yet, so full is nature of paradox, the less we 
have the more we are occupied with that we have, but it- 
is negative occupation. It is occupied with itself. Get 
any part diseased and you are instantly occupied 
with that part. To have a body,- the body we have must 
recreate itself, by laws of body. If the heart is bad, 
you cannot put in a new one. If your arm is paralyzed, 
you cannot put another in its place. To have a heart,, 
to have an arm, those parts must absorb from nature 
beyond that which is heart &>nd arm. So with soul. 
There is understanding, reason, imagination, perception, 
affection. Then beyond these there is love, there is 
mercy, truth, justice, virtue, unself, self-sacrifice. There 
are powers of perception, of sensation. Your soul or 
mine is whatever there is to us of any of these, of all 
these together. If I have no justice, no veneration, no 



7S 



SERMONS. 



love, to that extent my soul is diseased. I have in those 
respects no soul. Outside the soul, there is God, a uni- 
verse, elements on which the soul must feed, which the 
soul must assimilate. Where my soul fails, to that 
extent it dies. If I have not virtue, no agency can give 
me virtue. I must perceive and absorb it. The soul is 
related to these as the body to nutriment. I must take 
pains to get it. If I have not knowledge, no being can 
give me knowledge. I must seek it, absorb it. Soul 
must grow ; does grow, or dies. Health is enjoyment. 
Soul is life. He that hath health may eat, may drink, 
may run, is free. He that hath soul may feast, may 
fly, may dwell with God. Individual souls are variable 
quantities. One soul is more than another. God is 
the All-soul. To us, all is infinite which is not known. 
To God nothing is infinite because all is known. He is 
the All-pure, the All-wise, the All-just. We must be 
putting on purity, wisdom, justice. Christ was wisdom, 
purity, justice. In Him was all life. He came to 
demonstrate it all to us. He was our light. To have 
Christ is not to have His name. To have Christ is to 
have what was in Christ. To have Him, is to have life. 
" He that hath the Son of God hath life. He that hath 
not the Son of God hath not life." 

Out of these thoughts, very imperfect as they are, 
naturally grows this other thought : — " The light shineth 
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not." 
You know it is a fact in physical nature, that the sun- 
light passes through empty space and neither warms nor 
lights it. Climb up to the top of the highest mountains 
at noon-day, and the stars come out. The air is thin. 
It is therefore dark. We see only by as much light as 
is intercepted. So with your ear. That alone is music 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



79 



which you hear. That is pleasure which you feel. 
That which your nerve does not report to you does not 
exist. It is precisely so in morals. There must be 
something to intercept the light, or that light itself is 
nothing. It was so with Christ. He was an infinite 
light. He sat there where there was no soul. They 
do not know He was God. It is so to-day. He sits 
among men. He is not God to those who only call Him 
God. You teach a man nothing if you only teach him 
to do that. Would that it were possible to make men 
see ! Men would die to do it. The souls that intercept 
His rays, to them He is God. There is not one to 
whom all of God is revealed, because there is no soul 
that can intercept all there was in Jesus. The light 
still shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre- t 
hendeth it not. Have whatever soul we may, there is 
ever more soul to be gained. Even Paul said, the one 
yearning of his soul was to apprehend that for which 
also he was apprehended. 

Take another thought. This fact respecting Christ, 
that His light shone in darkness, and the darkness com- 
prehended it not, hath its parallel in history respecting 
all truth. All the substances of nature and all their 
laws, have been in being, certainly, ever since man has 
existed. Why did man not see them? Steam has been 
a fact ever since heat was 'first applied to water. How 
was it that man knew it not? The electric current has 
passed round this earth, ever since the earth was made. 
How is it man but yesterday discovered it? Facts as 
plain as the daylight have been staring man in the face, 
sporting with him, and he sat there in his blindness 
and knew them not. To-day, endless facts, things we 
sadly need are across our path; we are stumbling over 



80 



SERMONS. 



them, and yet see them' not. Coal lay In the earth how 
many years — oil, how many centuries? Men needed 
them both. Why are they but now found to be service- 
able ? We say that things come just as man wants them. 
That is true. God must look in very pity upon us. Our 
misfortune is, we want not yet the tithe of what He is 
rich enough to give. "The light shineth in the dark- 
ness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Men are 
everywhere hunting fortunes. Where are they hunting 
them ?— with the old murk-rake. Why not open the eye ? 
Why not introduce ourselves to some of the wonders that 
are yearning to make themselves known to us? We 
think a man is crazy when he begins to see. 

Some people think, and very often tell us religions 
truth does not grow. They imagine that a revelation 
makes growth impossible. What is revelation ? Did 
Judas know the love of Christ as John knew it? Do 
these words of John convey the same impression to all 
minds that are here to-clay. Words never convey the 
impression of the mind that employs them. If they 
coiftd, you could tell } r our child all you know to-day. 
The wise could tell us their secrets. * If I speak to you 
of prudence— yes, of God — your ideas go no further 
than your own experience — your own knowledge. What 
folly to tie oneself down to a formula ! The letter always 
killeth. That is never a revelation. The sign is never 
the thing signified. In one sense, religious truth does 
not grow. In one sense, no truth can grow. God is 
always God, and He is truth. But you perceive, to man 
all truth must grow, because man himself must grow. 
You perceive, woe were to us all were we to cease to 
grow. And hence, they who think they have nailed 
the truth fast, are only they who are nailed fast them- 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 81 

selves, and not to the truth either. The truth moves 
on and leaves them behind, and yet there is the paradox 
again. They whose spiritual health is gone, are they 
most occupied with what they have left ? Their religion 
is conscious of itself — an inevitable indication of decay. 
A Christian should be the last man in the world to think 
religious truth cannot grow. The Messiah said, " Moses 
said to you such and such things, but I say to you, not 
those things, but better things." The eye for an eye and 
tooth for a tooth of Moses had been itself a growth. Before 
that pronouncement there had been no law, or if there 
had, it had been unjust. Moses saw that fact. The 
sight was to him a revelation. Perception anywhere, 
or at any time, alone is revelation. The moment I per- 
ceive a better law, that moment I have a revelation from 
God. That revelation is binding upon me — compels 
me to impart it, and is imperative over every thing that 
is past or old. The Mosaic precept was an advance 
upon the heathen, and Christ was a long advance upon 
Moses. We do not yet understand Christ. " Love ye 
your enemies." a Do good and lend, not even hoping 
for anything again." What does that mean ? We repeat 
it, but we know not what it would say. Unless we 
grow, we die. Mysterious is being. Growth is implied 
in being itself. Immortality is pledged in the being we 
have, and growth is the essence of immortality. We 
understand nothing while we are at it. The child knows 
not childhood. The youth perceives it as he passes out 
of it. As you look back you envy the boy, but the boy 
is envying you. But we understand not youth except 
as we are men. One cycle of our manhood is not com- 
prehended till we are through it. To-day is the only 
interpreter of yesterday, and to-morrow will be a better 
11 



82 



SERMONS. 



interpreter still. In the Mosaic period, men interpreted 
the Antediluvian. They began to express that of which 
they had had an inkling. Sacrifice under Moses took a 
definite form, which had been but a shadow floating 
before Enoch and Seth. In our Christian dispensation 
alone have we understood the Mosaic. We could have 
instructed Isaiah. Not yet do we understand the Chris- 
tian dispensation. The Jew ran into a literalness which 
was childish and therefore destructive. We have fol- 
lowed his example, even to the denial or contradiction 
of the very faith we profess to have. Men are but 
just waking from their narrowness. We are intercept- 
ing more of Christ than ever before. Blessed be God ! 
We are demanding an advance. That hath in it much 
of hope. The history of the race so far has been an 
inclined plane, or a stair-case. Men have been going 
up all the time. The temple is certainly at the top. 
The human race is one inclined plane to-day, and its 
course is up the incline. 

Take that thought and carry it into man, as he is — 
see what we are and where we are — it will help us to 
understand things and be broader and higher ourselves. 
Look at the race — take the African, or the dweller upon 
the islands in the Pacific, how much is there that we can 
call manhood ? How much mind have they ? W hat do 
they worship? What could you tell them to-day of 
God. In any attempt you would be limited, not by 
your knowledge so much as by their comprehension. 
There is no soul to intercept. From them you can go 
up — how high? Where is the highest? What race 
knows most of God? Is it the Italian? Is it the 
German? Is it the Anglo-Saxon? Where is there 
most thought? — most culture? By culture, I do not 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



S3 



mean statues, and oil paintings, and family pricle. I 
mean knowledge, virtue, brotherly love, peace, mutual 
interchange of - blessing, sacrifice one for another. Find 
that and you will find the highest comprehension of 
Gocl. But suppose we are that people — does each indi- 
vidual of us stand at precisely the same point? Begin 
away down with the jails, with the vicious, the criminal; 
come up through the dissipated, the dishonest — then 
come up through the trifling, the worldly, the useless; 
then on through the sober, the industrious; then up 
through the grades of usefulness — the arts, commerce, 
science, laws; then into morals and religion, high and 
pure; up to the fairest conception of Gocl; see how 
these all mingle and whirl, and flow, into each other 
everywhere; how we are as a race/ a unit, and yet how 
there is a gradual uplifting from the dark, negative 
depths, to the sunny, positive heights. But, when we 
get into the moral and religious, where is the highest 
conception of God? — where is the deepest comprehen- 
sion of Christ? Is it in societies merely philanthropic? 
Is it among the Quakers, who ignore all forms? Is it 
in you and me, who have forms too many ? Did it never 
strike you how, with all our lines rigidly drawn, the 
sects are continually flowing into each other? There is 
a side of the Romish sect which comes up to meet a 
side of the Episcopal, and a side of the Episcopal that 
meets a side of the Methodist. In all sects, there are 
Calvinists and Quakers. Talk of one church — where 
would you cut the Christian body to-day to make it? 
Do you not see that the Church is one, that the race is 
one. Talk of sects — why, there are literally as many 
sects to-day as there are Christian men. I never saw 
and never expect to see, two men who believe exactly 



84 



SERMONS. 



alike. Sects — they are ' a necessity, only he who sees 
it will not be a sectarian. Men may subscribe to dogmas 
and articles and say they believe. It is impossible. If 
they merely assent, then they believe nothing. If they 
inquire and diligently seek, then they do not believe 
alike. One will see further than another, of necessity. 
No two men upon earth worship the same God. Many 
a member of the Church is a fatalist. Many another 
is a stoic. To one, God is a cold, relentless law. To 
another he is a Father in general, but nowhere in par- 
ticular. Many a member of the church has literally no 
conception of the true God at all. They have not soul 
enough to intercept the first ray from Christ. The 
divine precepts of the Bible might as well be hierogly- 
phics. They convey no thought. They dart through 
vacuity. Light that falls upon darkness cannot be 
comprehended. 

This brings us, then, to a very practical thought. 
Every man will take the very best religion he knows 
anything about. We have no need to trouble ourselves 
about other people's creeds. We need only to look into 
our own. No man can receive what he has not eyes to 
see. The thing is for you and me to have the biggest 
possible soul— to catch the highest possible conception 
of God. Never tie yourself to any creed or to any 
man, but have an ear open to every man's creed, so 
far as you can. Beware how we despise a man, for he 
who seems to us to be a fool may be far wiser than we, 
and only seem to be a fool because we have not soul 
enough to comprehend him. The great souls have al- 
ways been rejected and persecuted. If a man tell you 
what you have no vision to appreciate, you will only 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



85 



laugh at the man, or say, as Mcodemus said to Christy 
u Hotv can these things be?" This suggests a query :— 
Erom whom then, or by what means, are we to learn ? 
The thoughts I have expressed convey the answer. If 
you have not light, you are lost, You are in a whirl- 
wind ; and since, from him that hath not, will be taken 
away, ten to one, in your struggle, you will accept just 
the very thing you ought not to have. But if you can 
do this, arise and come to Christ ; by that I mean, not 
to me, or my Church, but to these words of Christ — -this 
life of Christ — this that Christ was— this that He did 
— this that He wants you to he— He will give thee light, 
The eye that is exercised is quickened. If you have 
some light, you will perceive this; while we do not 
know all things that are true, we still do know some 
things to be untrue, to be in the wrong direction. You 
will perceive this : whatever tends to unsoul you, to un- 
individualize you, tends to evil. Whatever prevents 
you from thinking, whatever chains you to your bodily 
senses, whatever shuts you up in narrowness and preju- 
dice, tends to make you a child, to make you live in 
shadows, in your lower being, It does not develop soul. 
You must perceive, God's plan is to lift man up to pure 
thought, to true mind, to spiritual perception— to give 
you the eyes that you want in the kingdom above, that 
are needful to make any kingdom, above possible for you. 
You see this in the history of our race. All the past 
points to a future of soul for man. As you go up, yon 
see the more there is to see, Whoever would divide 
the race for you, whoever would teach you that you 
have exclusive privileges, whoever would not make you 
sensible of your darkness, of your distance from Christy 



86 SERMONS. 

of your need of God, he would not be your friend. 
Think, pray, commune with thyself and God. 

Another query still. If all men understand us, only 
up to their capacity and not up to ours, what is the use 
of teaching? That is the use, because they do under- 
stand up to their capacity. You can teach your child, 
because he is learning, growing. His capacity is en- 
larging. You fill him every day, and his being craves 
light. There are ever those who are seeking, who have 
eyes — show them a truth and they perceive. That is 
strength to acquire a new truth ; for truth, when once 
you are upon it, is endless, 

Reflect upon the beauty of the thought — we have 
One we can hear, a divine Word ; a life and light. A great 
writer has said : that of all the men in the world at any 
one time, not more than ten can understand Plato. Plato 
was a great man, but that remark is a key to the differ- 
ence between all men and Christ. You observe, great 
men are not large in stature. They walk on stilts. 
They are away up above us in the clouds. Jesus Christ 
walks upon the ground. He can look into your little hut 
and mine. The humblest can see Him. But go as high 
as we will, reach the clouds. He still is there and 
higher than all. That is just like God. Our lamps can 
light a hall, a street, a city. The sun can extinguish 
all lamps and light every house, every landscape, a 
whole world. If you have an ear to hear Jesus, He can 
speak to you, no matter where you are. The bruised 
reed He will not break, the smoking flax not quench. 

Then what does this divine Word tell us ? " Lo, I 
am with you always." — "Where two or three are gath- 
ered together," &c. What have we been doing but not 
believing this, putting the promise away back with 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. 



87 



Peter and James and John, with councils and clergy, 
till we believe men. rather than God. One beauty of 
the Gospel is. it reveals a God present with you and 
me. It does not assure us that everything we take to 
be God shall be God. but it does assure us if we will 
diligently seek we shall find. We believe what people 
call the Church rather than the Apostles, and believe the 
Apostles rather than Christ. There is our sin, and our 
sin is our unspeakable misfortune. We should believe 
that God's word is truth and 20 out to seek the knowl- 
edge of that. I do not say there is no good in councils, 
for if they mean anything, they mean that in a multi- 
tude of councilors there is safety. But where since the 
day of Penticost has there been a multitude of councilors ? 
There have been cliques who assumed they were the 
church and met to impose their thin, little schemes ; a 
condition which in itself precluded the possibility of wis- 
dom, and was therefore antagonistic to safety. Man is 
to learn, not to assume that he knows. To the real 
believer — to the true sons of God, every day is a pen- 
ticostal day. In that fact rests our hope ; not only for 
ourselves but for our world. The Apostles received and 
reflected all the light they could, not as much as they 
ought. We ought to understand Christ better than 
those Apostles themselves. The same light is shining, 
no more, no less, shining for all that can comprehend it. 
Men have been in the habit of regretting that the first 
three centuries are past. I believe we know more of 
Christ than the first three centuries. We are nearer the 
millenium than they. A new dispensation is at hand. 
Not because God will bring it upon us suddenly, arbi- 
trarily, but because we are grown to it, and are growing 
to it. God at this moment is kneading up the human 



SERMONS. 



mass, spreading them out, folding them over, mixing 
them together. The human race is in motion. Prob- 
lems are discussed of which the first three centuries 
were wholly ignorant. Not discussed in what we call 
" oecumenical councils," not by what we call Bishops 
and Divines ; not in metropolitan churches, but on the 
broad platform of the Press, in all lands, where every 
man gets a hearing. The discussion hath a very large 
audience, not of those down on our church records 
merely, but of God's children. God is not leaving 
them. He is true to himself as He was of old, as 
He ever is, true to him who hath an ear to hear. 
Problems are discussed, not such questions, as whether 
I shall preach in a surplice or baptise a child in another 
man's parish, not the question as to which sect is the 
church, but problems which have to do with the well 
being of the world, problems up to the magnitude of 
which we as churches must rise, or have it again as 
it was with the Jews, that while claiming to be the 
church we will not do the work of God, and turn out to 
be therefore no church at all. The vineyard must be 
let to other husbandmen. The way of the Son of God 
must be prepared. His paths must be strait. The 
world is moving. Motion is the sure sign of life. We 
are not dead. Some may be, some are, and that is the 
question for us, whether it is you or I, but whether you 
or I, the promised day is coming when all shall be alive. 
In this blessed mountain of truth, of vision and light in 
Christ, as Isaiah said this morning : " The Lord of hosts 
shall make unto all people a feast of fat things. He will 
destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast 
over all people, the vail that is spread over all nations. 
He will swallow up death in victory. He will wipe 



THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL 



89 



away tears from off all faces. The rebuke of His people 
shall be taken away from off all the earth, for the mouth 
of the Lord hath spoken it." Yes, brethren, that is the 
purpose of all the light. God hath not created it in vain. 
The darkness shall not always be. The thought that 
we must all grow together is a solemn one. You know 
that is God's ordering. The hand does not first reach its 
full size and then the foot and then the head. All grow 
proportionally, simultaneously. If my brother is in 
darkness he keeps me back. If I can be in the light I 
help him. •Oh, what a thought ! God does not curse 
us if we do not comprehend, but you see we are blessed 
if we do comprehend. Every ray of light you get helps 
me. How humbly, how thankfully and thoughtfully 
should we all walk ! — not rinding fault with any for 
being ignorant — not over elated at our knowledge. 
How little it is at best. How far we are from God, 
from Christ. Are toe growing in soul ? Are we growing in 
vision ? How much light do we intercept ? How much 
still shineth in darkness ? Oh, brethren, let us rouse 
our dormant energies. Let not the light of the Gospel 
shine in vain. Let it not be when God calls us, that 
with all our privileges and blessings, the light only 
shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended 
it not. 



12 



9Q 



SERMONS. 



PRAYER. 

Matthew 1: 1, 8. — Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. 
Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth, 
and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 

It is remarkable of this Sermon upon the Mount, 
that while, as a discourse, all its parts are admirably 
connected, it contains many distinct and independent 
propositions. You have first of all a definition of a 
heavenly being ; the elements which constitute a heavenly 
nature — humility, meekness, thirst after righteousness, 
mercy, purity, power to make peace, individual holiness, 
holy individuality. You have then the office of such a 
being in the earth — namely, to enlighten it, redeem it, 
save it. You have then the principles of life which 
conduce to that being. One peculiarity in the expres- 
sion of these principles is, you have them condensed, 
or clustered in one specific act or practice. In each 
expression the finite and infinite blend, just as they do 
in every work of God. You take up a rose; it is an 
object simple in itself; through your senses it thrills 
you with delight; but nature has traversed millions of 
miles in the sunlight, and drawn from her remotest 
resources to produce it. Simple as it appears, you may 
study it till it grows into a wonder — the more wonderful 
as you study it, till your highest intellect fails to com- 
prehend it. This expression about asking and receiving, 
seeking and finding, is one of these comprehensive utter- 
ances, simple enough in appearance, but out of which 
endless queries are everywhere starting. 

There is first of all a direction, and then the assertion 
of a fact, as a basis for that direction — "Ask and ye 
shall receive, for he that asketh receiveth." 



PRAYER. 



91 



I suppose there are mental and moral positions from 
which it might be denied, that he who asketh receiveth. 
There are men who have a dim conception of a certain 
good, which they think they need, and they sometimes, 
with great fervency, approach God, as , they conceive of 
God, requesting the thing they desire, or think they 
desire, and yet, to all appearance, seek in vain. Men 
often tell us that they have- prayed for grace, for light, 
for certain experiences or possessions, with such absolute 
fruitlessness, they have been compelled to conclude, 
either that there is no God, or that prayer is of no use. 
In such cases, a penetrating observer will perceive that 
the man has either no just conception of God, or no 
exact definition of the thing he asks ; or if he has, that 
the thing is in itself impossible, or- that he is not using 
the means toward obtaining it, or that in his prayer all 
these elements combine, and the man is in irretrievable 
confusion, not knowing how to pray. 

On the contrary, as a matter of fact, subject to 
universal observation, it is written in human experience, 
that whatever a man truly sets his, heart upon, he will 
sooner or later in some degree secure. To set the heart 
upon a thing, is itself to some degree to discover some 
means of attaining that thing, and to avail oneself of 
the means. To set the heart upon a thing is, thus, to ask, 
to seek, to knock. If in human affairs, a man asks wealth, 
he can get it. He may pay very dearly for it, or after- 
wards lose it, but that is not the question here — he may 
get it. If he seek influence, power, applause, he may 
get that. If he knock at nature's door and ask admis- 
sion to her wonders, science will open her doors and 
reward his inquiries. Success is the one thing presup- 
posed. The assertion of Christ, "He that asketh re- 



02 



SERMONS. 



ceiveth," is the one foundation of all human undertaking 
and exertion. The north pole may lock itself within 
impassable barriers, but man in the full faith of a possi- 
bility, will knock at its doors till they are opened, and 
the barriers are passed. 

This, then, implies that asking, seeking, knocking, 
have their specific meaning; that not all seeking is 
seeking ; nor all asking, asking ; nor all knocking, knock- 
ing ; or, if it is, that we may ask for one thing, while 
we really mean another, or knock at many doors before 
we find the right one. Some men never succeed in any- 
thing, and the causes are plain enough to everybody 
except themselves. But this is hardly satisfactory with 
respect to this subject of prayer. Some man will say 
it amounts only to this: There are in nature certain 
things we need; nature is made for us — we are made 
for nature ; certain roads lead to certain results ; if we 
get upon the road and follow it we reach the result. 

This is one way of stating it, and various are the 
deductions which strike off here, according to the mind, 
the habit of thought, to which the propositions are pre- 
sented. To some it will seem that Christ uttered in the 
text a self-evident proposition, a mere truism, simply 
urging upon us carefulness and diligence in any pursuit. 
One man will say all the universe is but a system of 
laws. These laws cannot change. Each man is a waif 
by the operation of these laws cast upon the tide. All 
he has to do, is to live as he lists. "Whatever is, is 
right;" God is an abstraction; prayer is a folly, or at 
best a weakness, for how can that which is fixed be 
changed? Hence we get fatalism, atheism, an abandon- 
ment of many of the noblest attributes of man. There 
is a half-way of looking at every thing. Hence we get 



PRAYER. 



93 



the strange paradox: a believer in law, denying laws; 
such, e. g., as the law of affection, sympathy, will, the 
potver of combining laws. We get a denial of facts, or 
at any rate an ignoring, or inadequately accounting for, 
certain facts; such, e. g., as the universal fact of prayer, 
the universal belief in it and practice of it. A philoso- 
phy that is philosophy will account for facts that are 
demonstrated to be facts, and it will not say that a 
law compels us to an act that is contrary to law. And 
so we can keep on till whatever the difficulties might be 
in connection with prayer, the difficulties which spring 
from denying it are greater. If, in prayer ', we are upon 
a wrong road, we are»quite certain that without prayer? 
we are not upon the right one, 

In our religious matters we ought not to despise 
argument — patient, philosophical thought. We should 
be better off if we had more of it. But in any mere 
argument there must of necessity be much coldness, 
much, at best, unsatisfactory. There is always so 
much more we do not know, than there is we do 
know, any argument must be imperfect. If prayer 
be in the nature of things, we are not surprised to 
find it an existing fact. If it be the exercise of 
our highest being, we are not surprised at having it 
constantly urged upon us in our religion. Reverse that, 
If prayer be an existing fact, we may be sure it is in 
the nature of things, If Christ urged it upon us, we 
may be sure it is an exercise of our highest being. 

Now, the one fact which I think the Saviour wishes 
to impress, and which we greatly need to grasp and hold 
fast, is, that the universe is a system of laws, and that 
those laws are fixed. Unless we understand that, we 
can have no peace in believing; nor any comfort in 



04 



SERMONS. 



being. We are upon a troubled sea, tossed about by 
chance, and whether happy or unhappy, unable to rest, 
from the simple fact that what chance has clone chance 
may undo. If God or His laws could change, what 
basis could you or I have for our hopes, what confidence 
in His promises? Let us look at one or two of these 
laws, and first of all, this one that law cannot change. 
Next, that God is wise, I mean that in its broadest 
sense — knowing all things, and therefore knowing what 
is best. The highest law of all is love, and that is our 
highest expression of God. Love implies an affectional 
nature, emotions, yearnings, sympathies, will-power. 
It is the height of moral being,* the last and best of 
moral forces, the one force of all forces; but just as 
much a law as any other law ; not contrary to, but acting 
upon all laws. Then, though laws cannot change, they 
are capable of endless combinations. We combine laws 
to produce given results. God, the ultimate wise and 
loving intelligence, combines laws to produce given 
results. We may make a mistake. God never can 
make a mistake. He knows all laws. We know not 
one; i. e., all the possibilities of any one law we do not 
know. We may certainly know one possibility or con- 
dition of a given law, as, e. g., this one, a law itself — 
that moral being must respond to moral being, affection 
must seek affection, mind must commune with mind, 
soul with soul. And so asking, seeking, knocking, 
praying, is one of the very laws the exercise of which 
is a necessity to the obtaining of certain results, the 
one law which must be in combination with others in 
order to produce the given end. Hence prayer is a 
universal and time-long fact. Prayer is out of our 
affectional and emotional being, or is the exercise of the 



PRAYER. 



95 



highest functions of our being. Hence the noblest 
characters of which we have any knowledge have been 
praying men, whether among the heathen or among the 
Jews and Christians. Low nature, animalism, never 
prays. Hence Christ says, "Ask and you shall have." 
For, i. e., unless, you ask you cannot have. Out of fixed 
law we, therefore, get the necessity of prayer. 

Take this thought. There are certain laws, or truths, 
we cannot exactly reason out, but which because they are 
facts or truths, operate without our knowledge and pro-, 
duce their effects. It is so in our physical nature. We 
feel hungry and we eat, though we know nothing of the 
laws by which we assimilate our food. Our feeling hun- 
gry has nothing to do with our reason or our volition. 
Hence we have such things as instincts, phenomena, 
standing somehow by themselves, the laws of which 
we have not yet discovered. All pure instinct is in the 
region of the highest nature known to the being exer- 
cising it. It relates to .self-preservation. It has been 
supposed that man had no instinct. But man is more 
instinctive than any being of which we have any knowl- 
edge. All our instincts are of a moral nature. We in- 
stinctively believe in a hereafter. Preparation for eter- 
nity is so much an instinct that no amount of wrong 
education and perversion can crush it out of us. It lives 
under all forms, even under idolatry itself. Prayer is 
one manifestation of that instinct, a means to soul-pre- 
servation, that, to man, is self-preservation. The fact 
itself is profoundly suggestive and comforting. Gocl, or 
if you must have it so, the nature of things, fixed law 
would not have us do a useless thing. We are not beat- 
ing the air. In the act of praying God hears. So far 
have men climbed in their inquiries, w.e can begin to 
see how and why. 



96 



SERMONS. 



Take another thought.. This universe, the things 
that are seen, are not God, hut they are that which 
manifest God. All soul must have a body. These bodies 
of ours, are not us. They are only means of communi- 
cating, manifesting ourselves. The personality in these 
bodies is just that part which is not seen, which cannot 
be expressed. That personality is divided into many 
parts. It mounts through many degrees. There is first 
the fact of physical pain, bodily want. Every action of 
the. system has its nerve connecting it with the brain. 
When we use that word, we get to another element, the 
mind. All that is, we do not know. It has its elements 
and its laws. It is a higher power, that to which the 
lower looks and appeals. Over that you come to a will, 
an emotional and affectional element, which is highest of 
all, which, immaterial in itself so far as we know, still 
moves along the nerves, and responds to the feeblest and 
most distant member we possess. We know not how, 
when our finger aches, our brain responds. When our 
remotest member cries the brain hears. W^e only know 
facts. The links connecting are hidden. We know not 
what body is. What soul is. What force is. And if 
we know not what force is, much less do we know all 
the forces. We are constantly making discovery of 
new forces. If we can go up through chemistry and 
other sciences to substances which we hardly know 
whether to call them material, or spiritual, so we can go 
up, through physiology and philosophy and other scien- 
ces, to forces of will and intellect which we know are 
mighty and comprehensive, though we cannot exactly 
tell how or where they work. As our will-power per- 
vades our whole body, till, if its remotest particle cry 
to us we hear it, so we cannot help conceiving a God- 



PRAYER. 



97 



will-force pervading this universe, till if the humblest 
atom of it cry to Him he hears it. A great philoso- 
pher has said : " It is but reasonable to regard the 
force of gravitation as the direct or indirect result of a 
consciousness or a will existing somewhere." In other 
words, every world you see, and every atom of that 
world is God's body, a great nerve-force connecting it 
directly with the great All-will above, and if the hum- 
blest particle of matter have communion with God, hath 
soul no communion with Him ? Apart from the neces- 
sity arising from this consideration, what are the assur- 
ances of the Son of God to us, but that this humanity 
in an especial manner, and his church in emphatic terms, 
are his body. If our intellect flies, to combine laws for 
our relief, how shall not the divine, intellect respond in 
the combination of laws, for our rescue. Very blessed 
is that soul which can realize that everywhere God is 
there. Full of consolation is that spirit, which in every 
want knows that God knows it. Transcendently blessed 
is that soul which knows not only that God is, and that 
He is everywhere, but that anywhere in every want, it 
may cry to Him and know that he hears. 

But considerations in another department of thought 
and fact lift our contemplations still higher. Moral 
nature is the highest of all nature of which we have any 
knowledge, and the essence of moral nature is, that it 
is affectional. You must reflect we have affection, a cer- 
tain yearning, longing nature, absolutely inexpressible, 
but the highest and most potent of all our moral belong- 
ings, that in which we find our highest conception of 
moral being. Now, there are not two kinds of moral 
being. 31 an is created in the image of God. What we 
find in pure moral being is ? in the nature of things, in 

13 



98 



SERMONS. 



the being of God. In every sphere of nature, things 
are but counterparts, body to soul, soul to body ; limbs 
to brain, brain to limbs. One part is essential to the 
perfection of the other part. If we find the parental 
relation as a fact, then the child is as essential to the 
parent as the parent to the child. If our children want, 
it is a pleasure to us to relieve their want, and this is 
the very ground on which the Saviour bases this thought 
of prayer. . If we, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts to our children, how much more shall our father 
in heaven know how, &c. If affection is a fact, then 
it must have an object on which to lavish its force, or 
itself remains inactive and void. Beyond a question 
God is affectional in His nature. That is the very rev- 
elation of Him Jesus Christ made to us : " Our Father." 
As we need Him to lean upon, so He delights in our love, 
in our trust, in a certain sense, He needs it. For himself, 
for His glory, as we say, all things are and were created. 
Just as, though our children know that we love them 
and will do for them what is best, we could not be 
contented to have them coldly neglect us, and keep 
aloof in moody and philosophic silence, i. e., unphilo- 
sophic silence. Our affection finds relief and delight 
in their filial confidence, dependence and communion. 
That is the nature of affection, its law. We need what 
they give, as they need what we give. God above us 
craves, what our instincts teach us to yield, till so far 
from prayer and communion with Him being an unnat- 
ural and impossible thing, it would seem to me the most 
unnatural and impossible of all things if prayer could not 
be. Some time ago, I took my little girl in my arms 
and playingly said to her, I would give her away to 
somebody who would carry her off. " Well," she said, 



PRAYER, 



Oil 



"you will cry about me if you do, for you know you can- 
not get along without me," a reply which thrilled me 
through and through with emotion. In a certain sense, 
she is of no use to me : — in many ways, a source of care 
and anxiety, but there are hopes in her, and treasures of 
affection so great, that to blot her out, would be to blot 
out just so much of my existence. And so, admit that 
we are no use to God, does that imply that our needs are 
not His care ? That He can at anytime be indifferent 
to our yearnings ? How does he reveal himself to us, 
but as a Father, seeking us, desiring just this very 
return of affection, of loving responsiveness to Him. 
Look at the Saviour with those disciples : What could 
they do for Him ? but what a carefulness in Him to do 
for them ! What a yearning for their love, for a like- 
ness of Himself in them, just as we long for the charac- 
teristics of refinement and culture in our children which 
can make them truly our delight. Admit, if you will, 
that as our children grieve us, when they depart from 
our love, so we must grieve God, when we depart from 
His love. That is the very representation of God to us 
in scripture. God anxious for us prodigals to come 
back. In His longing the very first to see us, when we 
do come back. Conclude then that God cannot be happy. 
6Wlude anything you will, but delude this, would I not 
be a brute if I did not seek my erring child, if I did not 
grieve after her. Is it not the base and ignoble nature 
which does not feel ? Take the road that God cannot 
be anxious about His creatures and you take the road 
which leads you inevitably away from all true concep- 
tion of God. Is it not the high nature alone which has 
pity ? which can make sacrifice out of love, and is not 
my highest conception of God just in this very consid- 



100 



SERMONS. 



eration that He is the riphest of all beings in a love 
which can feel for us and grieve over us. In the nature 
of things it is — not only that we need to pray, but that 
God is delighted when we do pray, and this very asking, 
seeking, knocking, is the nerve, along which God sends 
to us, our richest and highest joys. 

From this we mount up into one other thought. I 
can only briefly state it. It grows out of these consider- 
ations. Prayer is out of that condition of a soul in love 
with divine things. You may draw any conclusion from 
that you like. You may conclude that it is a thing next 
to impossible for some men to pray. That is true. 
Some men are too low down to pray, or to know what 
prayer is. That is what I have suggested, and you see 
the reason for it. You may conclude that some prayers 
are not prayers at all; but only meanness and folly; 
mere mockery; and so, offensive to God. That is true. 
True prayer is that soid-action which is begotten by a love 
of divine things. It naturally grows out of it, as the 
caresses of your child grow out of its attachment to 
you. You cannot make prayer. Prayer is spontaneous. 
Call it self-communion, or communion with God, or what 
we will, prayer is that element in spiritual life which 
attests spiritual life. All mental or spiritual conditions 
to which men attain have their characteristics. The 
poet has his peculiar actions, haunts and communions. 
The inventor and discoverer, his visions and abstractions. 
Worldliness loves levity— that which is evanescent, 
trifling, sensuous — not because it would, but because 
that is all it can love. Hence any tree is known by its 
fruits. Prayer is the characteristic of a soul in com- 
munion with God. It is an energy, a life, a fire within; 
a development, if you please; a range of being to 



PRAYER. 



101 



which the soul has mounted. This is the reason for 
the fact I stated — that the noblest characters we 
know have been praying characters. It is no accident 
which has lifted Socrates and Zoroaster, not only above 
the heathen, but above the heathen gods themselves. 
It is no accident which elevates the religious .element 
over the ages to the first place. It is no accident which 
makes Abraham and Moses and Daniel and Isaiah im- 
mortal. It is no accident which gives Christ the em- 
pire of the world. God will forever reign, and that 
which is nearest to Him will be forever highest. It is 
possible to manifest this divine life in ways not techni- 
cally called prayer. Nay, it will manifest itself in other 
ways. He who prays only on his knees, or when he 
counts his beads, may diligently inquire whether he 
ever prays at all. The simple act of devotion is tran- 
'scendently delicious, but the soul is not so constituted 
that it can make that act perpetual. The affection 
which is forever fondling is sickly, and at last disgusting. 
The life devoted to prayer, so-called, runs into supersti- 
tion; and monasteries are first hospitals, and at last 
sepulchers. Prayer is a spirit which, like all other 
spirits, has a body. Prayer is the craving of all good, 
and puts itself into means toward obtaining it. Prayer, 
therefore, is very often work. Prayer is fidelity to trust. 
Prayer is high hope and holy striving. The mother 
who trains her child is praying while she does it. The 
heart that relieves a want, roots up an evil, rolls back a 
curse, is a heart that prays. The soul that studies all 
good; that diligently seeks to know itself and God, 
shall be truly filled. So we return to the fact — -"Ask 
and you shall have, seek and you shall find, knock and 
it shall be opened unto you." 



102 



SERMONS. 



Now, if there be one pf you shivering in the icy 
atmosphere of a fixed law, let me urge you to remember 
there are infinite laws you know nothing about. Not 
only so, there are in the laws you think you know, 
infinite possibilities of which we are ignorant. Take 
the law of affection. Do not be afraid of God. Give 
way to your yearnings, open your heart, do not live 
away from God. Why are we so lean? Why is this 
world so desolate? Take Christ as a law — take His 
commandment — His example as a law. Find rest; find 
love and joy and peace. If any of you are strangers 
to prayer, do you not see how far away from God you 
are. Still, we should beware of our prayers. Not all 
prayers are pleasing to God. Our petitions may some- 
times only betray our selfishness, our lack of trust, our 
sordid unheavenliness. There must be a fitness between 
the thing asked and the soul asking, and the God of 
whom it is asked. Your foot may, under pain, cry for 
ointment, or in the cold for warmth, but it does not 
prescribe the odor of the ointment or the cost of the 
shoe. Let the soul which approaches God take heed 
how it dictates to God. If you want bread, be sure it 
is bread you want and ask bread; but beware how you 
ask, for while the meat is in your mouth lust may come 
upon you and overthrow you in a wilderness. If you 
want money ask money, but reflect God may say to you 
as He said to Balaam: "Yes, go with Balak." But you 
may go to your cost. God may do for you not what 
He would, but only the best you will let Him. Pray 
for humility, submission, thankfulness. Let God do 
His will, or pray that your will may be His. 

Our prayers will be out of our highest being, but we 
should take heed that that being is such God can smile 



PRAYER. 



103 



upon it and bless it. We may be worse off for our pray- 
ers. Sometimes we want the world converted; and we 
pray God to convert it, but how, or to what ? Simply 
to our way of thinking, to our church or creed, that is 
all we mean, when we ought to pray that we ourselves 
may be converted to the right. Let us not prescribe to 
the Almighty. He knows what is best and how best to 
accomplish it. Paul wants to go to Rome. He asks 
God that he may go. But how does he go? Persecu- 
tion makes him a prisoner and chained to a Roman sol- 
dier, at the expense of an empire, and under its protec- 
tion he makes the journey. God had said : " I will lead 
them in paths that they know not. I will make dark- 
ness light before them and crooked things straight. 
This will I do unto them and not forsake them ? " You 
ask of God divine wisdom and preparation for heaven. 
How does He answer ? He sends you out to great and 
fearful trial. He takes from you that wherein you have 
trusted, that you may find Him alone and trust Him. 
You ask to be useful. God sends you first to drink of 
that cup which shall teach you how to sympathize, out 
of the resources of human nature to respond to human 
want. The burden of your heart may be that another 
be blessed. This act of prayer in the exercise of sin- 
cerest affection is one of the channels which God has 
appointed whereby to convey His blessing. Sometimes 
directly, as, when a parent prays for a child, he trains 
the child toward the blessing; sometimes indirectly, 
as when we pray for our enemies we manifest that 
disposition toward them which disarms their hostility 
and wins their respect. Yerily, as the Saviour said 
on another occasion : " We ought always to pray 
and not to faint." We pray not alone, when we pray 



104 



SERMON'S. 



aright. The Spirit of God is there, not only to respond, 
but to help, not only to interpret us to God, but to in- 
terpret God to us. Pray without ceasing. The time 
will come when all shall hare learned to pray, and this 
aching human heart shall have found peace and rest. 
Let that also be a part of our prayer — that the time 
may speedily come when this whole earth shall be an 
habitation of communion with God, an house of prayer 
for all people, then there will be joy and peace upon this 
earth, then will be rest for this beating, heaving, human 
heart. 



PAUL ON MARS' HILL. 

Acts 17 : 22— Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill, and said: Ye 
men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 

Some persons have objected to this translation as being 
not altogether faithful. The place in the midst of which 
Paul stood was the grand tribunal, the seat of the high- 
est court in Athens. Around him sat the dignity and 
wisdom of the city. Men not dignified and wise as 
Athens had known wise and dignified men, but still 
men at least the best that Athens had. Paul had been 
preaching in the market place to the common crowd. 
The strangeness of his theme had opened the ears of 
many, and his earnestness had touched some hearts. 
Eager for something new, the council upon Mars' Hill 
honor him with an invitation to appear before them. 
Though judges by profession, they have already pre- 
judged him. They have taken for granted that what 
they do not know can scarcely be worth knowing. 



PAUL OX MARS' HILL, 



105 



Nevertheless, "let us hear what this babbler says :" " Let 
us hear this new thing." Under such condescension, it 
is contended. Paul would not have commenced his 
address by shocking their sensibilities. In the presence 
of dignities Paul was remarkable for his urbanity. To 
tell these men at once they were too superstitious would 
have been to disarm himself. He only says : " Ye 
men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are 
very religious'. You build altars alike to the gods you 
know and to those you do not know, for as I passed by 
and beheld your devotions I found," &c. Our translation 
might therefore be too expressive. The Apostle uses 
the superlative degree of an adjective, which means reli- 
gious, but which may also mean superstitious. " I per- 
ceive you are religious in an extreme degree— too reli- 
gious — religious overmuch, and it comes to the same 
thing at last, 6 superstitions? " 

The difference, however, between the original and 
our translation, suggests the question: What is religion? 
what is superstition? how does superstition differ from 
unreligion and irreligion? 

All men will freely enough admit that profligacy, 
immorality, vice and crime, are not religion. All the 
world over, especially in all lands that by any sort of 
right might be called Christian, every form of religion 
or superstition has for its ostensible object the suppres- 
sion of wrong and the elevation of virtue. In these 
times, too, even many mistakes as to what virtue is are 
being dissolved. Retaliation — personal revenge, e. g.— 
is not now a virtue as past ages considered it. There 
is a general agreement that what is wrong by any law 
is irreligious. s But multitudes of men imagine that, 
because they are not profligate, nor dishonest, nor 

14 



106 



SERMONS. 



vicious, nor criminal, that, they are therefore religious. 
They might with just as much propriety conclude they 
are therefore learned, or wealthy, or powerful. The one 
conclusion follows just as much as the other. To be 
wealthy, a man must have means, other than those which 
will barely keep him out of debt. Only the child 
imagines that the alphabet and the multiplication table 
are learning, and he only imagines it because he is a 
child, because he is ignorant. A man wakes up — it may 
be on a Sunday morning— he gets his breakfast, he plays 
with his children, he walks about his house, he surveys 
his belongings, he sits down to reflect, he has paid his 
debts, he has been strictly honest, he has no ill-will 
toward any being, he has even been kind, he has pro- 
vided well for his family — it is true, he makes no pre- 
tensions to religion — there is nothing hypocritical about 
him — he believes if a man does the best he conveniently 
can, when he dies he will go to heaven; but he might 
just as well believe, when he dies his name will be 
enrolled among the great astronomers, or military cap- 
tains, or Arctic discoverers. He knows nothing of soul, 
of spirit, of moral agency, of high duties, of life-respon- 
sibilities. He is only up to where he is simply not un- 
natural and not a criminal. If he should hear this that 
I have said, or see it in a religious book, he would say, 
" Yes, that is the way. These men who ought to know 
most about religion, are the very ones who know the 
least. They shut the kingdom of heaven to all but 
themselves." And he would actually conclude that, 
even if all other men were in error, he still would, for 
that very reason, be a- wise man. He would imagine that, 
in an award of great crowns for heroic deeds, he ought 
to have one, simply because he had done nothing mean. 



PAUL ON MARS' HILL. 



107 



And this class of people is of almost limitless extent. 
Men and women in endless thousands are honest, harm- 
less, possessed of natural affection, respectable, polite, 
polished, agreeable, who, however, think nothing of 
religion; care nothing about it; think nothing of God, 
of Christ — know nothing of them, nor desire to know. 
They have no high mission; take no side with God; and 
yet, when they think of dying, think they will, of 
course, go to heaven. They know nothing of what 
heaven is. They have taken up with the idea that they 
have something to do in order to be lost; not that the 
truth is exactly the other way, and that they have 
something to clo in order to be saved. The world is 
full of nothings, and if nothings go to heaven, heaven is 
very full. 

In the profligate, vicious and criminal, then, you have 
the zrreligious, the open, violent, persistent opposers of 
God, opposers of man, and, in many instances, opposers 
of themselves. In those who do nothing to be saved, 
nothing to help God, nothing to help man, nothing to 
upbuild this world in intelligence, in virtue, in all well- 
being, you have the unreligious — those who are simply 
without religion. You have not two different kinds of 
persons, but the same kind only in two different degrees. 
The one is nothing — the other only worse than nothing. 
And yet it is only admitted that the one is nothing, for 
the sake of distinction; for their very nothingness is a 
tax upon what spiritual vitality there is in humanity, 
and they are only less of a tax than the defiant resisters 
of all good. It is impossible for any being who recog- 
nizes not God, to fulfil any duty in life as that duty 
ought to be met. In heaven there can never be any 
such tax upon virtue. Therefore, not only the wicked 



108 



SERMONS. 



are to be cast out, but for getters of God. St. John 
says nothing can by any possibility enter that "maketh 
a lie," i. e., which is of the nature of a negative — which 
would tend to neutralize. The virtue of the blessed is 
a positive, aggressive virtue, having life in it, and tending 
to produce life. 

Now, there is a very strong apprehension of this in 
the human mind, in man taken in the aggregate, in man 
taken in races or nations. This idea of preparation, 
or fitness, of this something above nature may be instinc- 
tive in the first place, for man is the most instinctive of 
all beings, if you consider that his instincts are of a 
moral and spiritual order. But whether instinctive or 
not it is instantly and clearly reasonable, and endorsed 
by analogy throughout nature. And hence you have 
through all ages, religion, or something intended to 
be religion. You have sacrifice, ceremonies, priests, 
churches, creeds, all that makes up the outward and 
visible form of an abstract and spiritual fact. Something 
must be done to make us acceptable to God, fit for heaven. 
There must be religion. At first, after man lost his pri- 
meval idea, there was the simple attempt to represent 
God. Then men began to perceive divine : attributes 
and to represent them. Then a perception of the beauty 
of intelligence and wisdom dawned upon man and he 
began by tangible means to represent that, till eventu- 
. ally these gross things, with the scraps of truth thereto 
adhering, took the place of God, and man actually bowed 
down to the vain creation of his own imagination ; man's 
imaginings were as near to divine laws, as his images 
were to the Deity. Man forsook reason, and in for- 
saking that forsook God and all good. In embracing 
evil as a good he became palsied, and buried by his 
own exertions . All evil within him was augmented 



PAUL ON MARS' HILL. 



109 



by the wrong he created. Love of good died out 
of him, Fear of evil took possession of him. From 
looking upward and struggling upward, he plunged down- 
ward. That which of itself would fulfil all law passed 
into that which only transgressed all law. The light in 
him was darkness. What he thought was the best 
thing he had, was the worst thing he could have had. 
His religion was superstition, something that stood over 
him, something that did not elevate him, but something 
that kept him down. And thus these Athenians with 
all .their devotion to what they supposed was religion, 
were not religious, but only superstitious" 

Now, not to trace too minutely the history of revealed 
religion, you will observe that it uniformly suppresses all 
image representation. It guards man's whole being by 
appealing to his intellect. In earlier ages, however, in 
man's childhood, it allows him not a representation of 
God, but a representation of his duties and relations to 
God. It affords him aids to comprehend his relations 
and to meet his duties. It allows him to represent what 
should go up from his life, from his intellect and soul, 
what should suggest it to him and keep him in the per- 
formance of it. He builds a temple. That represents 
his body. He offers sacrifice. That represents his 
service. He causes incense to ascend. That represents 
his prayers. Imp ere ept ably, however, even here the 
sign is taken for the thing signified. Reason, intellect 
and soul, judgment, mercy and truth are forgotten and 
men believe that a system of ceremonies, a bigoted, blind 
plodding in soulless forms, can please God, can make 
religion; that a creation which ignores man's nobler being, 
which keeps a race in the agony of ignorance, poverty, 
sickness and wrong, which delays the destiny of a world, 



110 



SERMONS. 



can be the one delight upon earth of an eternal God. 
And hence you observe, the Jews, though the exponents 
of religion were the least religious, if possible, of all 
people. Christ, the divine Word, most emphatically re- 
pudiated them. Their supposed religion had become 
absolute superstition. Their light too was darkness. 
A supposed good was the deepest of real evils. You do 
not wonder the progress of ages tore up the Scribes and 
Pharisees any more than that it tore up Paganism and 
idolatry, and you are as thankful for the fact in the one 
case as in the other. 

You must begin now to perceive something of the dif- 
ference not only between zrreligion and unreligion, but 
between religion and suj^erstition. You perceive that 
superstition is the shadow of religion, the perversion ef 
religion — a mistake of a form for a fact, a wrong, an 
evil, not less deadly than unreligion and irreligion — 
indeed more deadly because hopelessly incurable. It 
makes the victim believe that he has the thing which 
God and wisdom require him to seek. As to its dead- 
liness, too, do not confine your thoughts to the results 
which cluster leyond this ivorld. We know little of those 
results. Look at the results upon earth. You see not 
only narrowness, folly, uncharitableness ; not only 
absence of virtue, of manliness and true exaltation, but 
you see what our age calls uncivilization. Man's bodily 
and human condition. Man himself, manhood, human- 
ity, degraded, sunken, despicable ; man repelling light, 
choking all good ; man resisting, crushing man. Where 
the exceptions to this condition occur, they are excep- 
tions in exact proportion to a liberation from supersti- 
tion. Some nations never can be civilized until they 
shake off, or in proportion as they do shake off, their 



PAUL ON MARS' HILL. 



Ill 



superstition, what we often call their religion. Athens 
had her civilization, but Socrates and others taught the 
Athenians over the heads of the gods to behold sublime 
realities beyond. You recollect one of the charges 
against Socrates was, that he corrupted the Athenian 
youth, by teaching them a disrespect for the gods. But 
he did not teach them a disrespect for virtue, for truth, 
for reality, for religion, and he was the greatest blessing 
Athens ever had, till Paul got to Mars' Hill to tell the 
wisest of them they were " too superstitious." If Chris- 
tianity in its first purity and fervency could not create a 
civilization brighter than any which had existed, should 
it so seem to anyone, it was because a divine power was 
needed to stay the tide of death, to delay the consequen- 
ces of long ages of superstition and make a true civili- 
zation possible. 

Now, it would take too long to trace the history of 
the Christian church, and mark how, like the Jews, it 
has too often mistaken the sign for the thing signified; 
how history has repeated herself and asserted, out of 
man's mistakes, that man can never make a mistake, no 
matter how pure his intention, without paying very dear 
for it. Religion is not a thing that is variable, or de- 
pendent in any degree upon man's caprices, philosophies, 
creeds or churches. The time was when a human ipse 
dixit could make the sun go round the earth. No 
astronomer now imagines that he can make a system of 
astronomy. All understand that they are simply to 
learn nature's laws and understand nature's system. 
The human race, however, has not given up making 
religion. It has not learned that the laws of religion 
are as simple and fixed as the laws of astronomy. It 
has not devoted itself to learn God's system and apply 



1L2 



SERMONS. 



it in practice, and so secure salvation. Paul gives to 
these Athenians an expression of religion, which ought 
to have been sufficient of itself to keep man free of 
superstition. God rules. He made the world and all 
things in it. He is not like unto gold, or silver, or 
stone, or anything made by art or man's device. He 
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither can 
be worshiped with man's hands, as though He needed 
something; for that is impossible, seeing it is He who 
gave to us life, and breath, and all things. You seem 
to hear in this expression of Paul's, across the ages, the 
echo of God's expression to Moses: 66 1 am the great I 
AM." This God made all men; made them of one blood ; 
divided them into families to dwell upon all the face of 
the earth; determined each one to have its bounds and 
habitations; made not one to war upon another, not one 
to elevate itself by crushing another; not one to imagine 
itself the favored one of heaven; nay, all are His off- 
spring, equally dear to Him; each one equally a candi- 
date for His protection and blessing; each one not far 
from Him, for in Him we all live and move and have 
our being. To live, and move, and have being, what 
for? Why, to seek Him, to feel after Him, to find Him; 
not simply to live, move, and have being; not simply 
to do nothing but keep soul and body together; to find 
God, to study His law, to find our work— to love one 
another and help one another. And, now, in Jesus 
Christ all men everywhere are called upon to repent — 
repent our ignorance— repent our idleness — repent our 
unlove and selfishness — our allowing this world to be 
swallowed up of forgetfulness of God, of ignorance, 
vice, wrong and all evil— to be overspread of strife and 
all woe. To do this, not to dream about it. Why ? Be- 



PAUL ON MARS' HILL. 113 

cause He hath appointed a day in which He will judge 
the world in righteousness, by the eternal laws of the 
eternal right; not by what your creed suggested, your 
church determined, your whims, your wisdom or unwis- 
dom dictated; nay, but judge us in righteousness by 
Jesus Christ, whom he hath ordained, according to 
Christ's law, according to His example, according to 
His precept,' of which we are ignorant — the very ignor- 
ance itself is condemnation, itself a sin, itself a crime 
against the world, against God and our own souls — ■ 
proof of all which, proof of it, God hath given us, in 
that He hath raised up Jesus from the dead. 

Now, this is no easy thing to do. It is not easy to 
see this world, God's dominion — this body, His temple- — 
this life, my soul, my intellect, my body with all its 
energies and faculties — His service, my service to Him — 
this generation, His vineyard and the sphere in which 
He has placed me — my place to work in His vineyard, 
this brief mortality, my only opportunity. It is easier 
to think God does dwell in temples made with hands. 
Let our churches witness that He is worshipped by art 
and man's device ; that He loves our tawdry finery, our 
bald expressions of divine beauty; that He is a respecter 
of persons, loving me more because I was born to a 
creed, or had one made for me, or made one for myself; 
that He loves me more because I love myself more. 
We know it is easier because we see men continually 
lapsing, evermore substituting the shadow for the reality. 
No shadow of doubt crosses their mind that they can be 
wrong. Whenever truth in its wanderings sends its 
voices within the pale of their sanctum, it is considered 
a u babbler T They forever talk of something new, but 
it is because they are afraid of everything new ? especi- 



114 ' SERMONS. 

ally a new thought. This spirit shuts itself up in 
dignity; assumes to itself a judgment seat; claims for 
itself the right to think, and to dictate to others what 
they shall think; walls itself up in antiquity; declines 
all intercourse with the outside world, afraid of truth; 
casting a shadow where it ought to illuminate ; contented 
with its own ease; satisfied that the common masses 
should continue the common masses still, they being 
entitled only to the best terms they can make with 
nature, yet scrupulous to a fault; multiplying days and 
seasons; straining at a gnat, &c; carrying us all back 
to human infancy; amusing us with toys and pictures, 
when, as heaven-taught men, we should be manfully 
working for God; looking always backward and never 
forward; never dreaming that man, like all other things, 
is made to progress, to develop, to shake off the swad- 
dling bands of childhood and enter upon the full matu- 
rity, the heritage of the sons of God. In it all you 
have superstition. Religion expands, broadens, deepens 
our better nature, brings into action every noble faculty, 
sends us out in rich sympathy with our race to lift it 
and bless it. Religion is the true light of the true God. 
Superstition narrows, cramps, freezes our whole being; 
shuts us up in a clique; cuts us off from our neighbor. 
It is the wrecker's fire, built by the great enemy, to lure 
us to eternal death. Religion is usefulness. Supersti- 
tion is blind, childish devotion. 

I ask you to look at the past — look at Christ, with 
the eye of an enlightened reason — and ask yourselves 
is not God's will — our work — true religion — very plain ? 
Is there any need of so many mistakes? And yet, 
brethren, if Paul were here to-day, as once he stood 
upon Mars' Hill, might he not as truly say to one nation 



PAUL ON MARS' HILL. 



115 



and another nation, to our church and another church, 
to you and to me, I perceive that in all things ye are 
too superstitious, too religious in the wrong direction, 
forgetful that God loves mercy more than sacrifice. 
Would he not find in your heart and my heart, multitu- 
dinous altars to which we blindly but actually bow, and 
only one to a true God, and He to us still unknown? 
Oh ! how much man has yet to learn before it can be 
truly said, that true religion is the one characteristic of 
even the church itself. The true pattern of a true 
religion was in a meek and lowly man ; a man who had 
no creeds; who was not contented with doing nothing; 
who went about doing good ; who bore in His own body 
all human infirmity; who instructed the ignorant, minis- 
tered to the poor and the sick and the unfortunate; who 
found a brother in every man from Nicodemus to the 
wretched leper; who could worship upon Mount Moriah, 
but who did worship in Gethsemane; who was not con- 
tent with simply curing the victims of past misfortune, 
but took hold to make the whole world better; who died 
at last in man's service, and therefore in God's service. 
In Him was no superstition. Is our religion like His ? 
He is in glory and His work still following Him. If 
we are like Him — not otherwise — we shall be in glory, 
and our works shall follow us. He hath a mansion 
prepared in His Father's house, for every one prepared 
for the mansion. 



116 



SERMONS. 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 

1 Corinthians 13 : 13. — And now abideth faith, hope, charity — these three * 
— but the greatest of these is charity. 

At first sight, this Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 
appears to be disjointed and rambling. But upon close 
observation it turns out to be peculiarly direct and con- 
secutive. 

The Corinthians, like most men of their times, and 
of all other times, did not see that the essence of an act 
was in the spirit which inspired it. They did not see 
that God took no account of the act itself, but only of 
the essence, and that where the essence was, it might 
clothe itself in any act, as time and circumstances sug- 
gested. In consequence of this mistake or failure they 
found themselves worried about proprieties. Opinions 
differed. They were so anxious to do right, they even 
quarreled about what was right. They did evil that 
good might come. The Apostle therefore gives them 
directions relative to various practices, endeavoring to 
impress the -thought, that their object, the object of 
religion is, that they should keep under their bodies 
and have them in subjection to mind and soul, so that 
they might not, by any perversion, be swallowed up of 
ignorance, error, or vice. It matters not who they were 
or what they were by profession. They were human 
beings, and God's laws would work in them as in all 
other human beings. The Jews, God's own people, 
were overtaken of death on account of transgression, and 
it happened to them, or the record was made relative to 
them, that all future generations might be wiser. Even 
the sacraments themselves are nothing of themselves, 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



117 



but under perversion conducive only to greater condem- 
nation. All powers and gifts and privileges are for edi- 
fication. No power or gift can justify a man in mistake 
or wrong. No gift is sanctified which leads to error. 
Wisdom alone is salvation. Wisdom is made up of three 
things — right knowledge, right purpose and right 
action ; that alone is religion. Right action can only be 
after right knowledge and right purpose. It is the 
essential part, the kernel or fruit for which right knowl- 
edge and right purpose exist. Faith, hope and charity — 
these three — but the greatest of these is charity. 

Investigation into the phenomena of nature, shows us 
that things which do appear to be simples are made up 
of many elements. What were once supposed to be the 
original elements themselves — fire, air, earth and water — 
are known to be but combinations of many elements. 
Air is nitrogen and oxygen. Water is hydrogen and 
oxygen. Fire is carbon and oxygen. Earth is almost 
anything, but chiefly oxygen. I believe the original ele- 
ments have been reduced to something like fifty or sixty, 
but by far the greatest in bulk and importance is oxy- 
gen. While all are essential in their sphere and degree ; 
if we were endeavoring to express their relative value 
we should say, " the greatest of these is oxygen." 
Paul therefore, in speaking of charity, speaks relatively, 
Then the real elements come to us in their compounds. 
Our nature responds to these and we live by appropri- 
ating from each that which our nature demands. The 
original elements themselves, if we have by any means 
reached the original elements, for that seems to be a 
question, but if we have, those original elements seem to 
be of no use except as they are in combination. Though 
we live, in a sense, by oxygen, yet put us in pure 



118 



SERMONS. 



oxygen and we cannot live, or even if we could, it would 
still be only as that oxygen combined with other sub- 
stances in the very act of respiration. If we would use 
the elements for artificial or scientific purposes, still we 
must by laws of their own combine them. Abstract one 
element and you have nothing. Combine it as nature 
suggests and you have a force. Every element is made 
for action with other elements. One part of nature is 
made for other parts. The bodily happiness, the mental 
and moral development of man, might be said to be 
nature's ultimate purpose. To intellect and soul the 
remotest element owes and pays its homage and minis- 
try. Religion is the handmaid of soul. Religion is 
faith, hope and charity. It cannot be divided. If you 
aim at charity and leave out a wise faith, you run into 
superstition and all folly. Man himself, like all other 
units, is a compound. He is a material organism, or 
body. He is an incorporeal organism, a spiritual essence, 
or soul. Man is not one of these, but both of these com- 
bined. He cannot be divided. One is evermore merg- 
ing in the other. Body acts upon soul and soul upon 
body. Action and reaction are equal. Degrade one or 
the other and both are degraded. Truly elevate one 
or the other and both are elevated. These two in 
their various combinations, make up the economy of 
this life. But because soul is the highest object, the 
ultimate object, and religion is the element which has to 
clo with soul, whilst we cannot neglect any, yet in 
speaking relatively of the elements, we can say religion 
is the greatest. It cannot be neglected, except as all 
life, the whole man decays. We cannot make a mistake 
with reference to it, except as in that degree we vitiate 
it and so fail to have it. No man can neglect it, or in 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



119 



his contemplations leave it out, except as in that de 1 
gree he fails to reach the highest development of a man, 
and to that degree fails to attain his noblest purpose in 
being. 

As the body has its laws of subsistence so the soul 
has her laws of subsistence. As the body responds to 
certain elements, so the soul responds to certain other 
elements. There are well bodies and sick bodies. Per- 
fect responsiveness of body to nature constitutes health. 
"Want of responsiveness to nature constitutes unhealth 
or sickness — according to its degree, death. There are 
pure souls and impure souls; souls saved and souls 
unsaved. Responsiveness to the moral elements is life. 
Want of responsiveness to those elements is death. As 
the condition of the well body is called health, so the 
condition of the well soul is called religion. A truly 
religious man has a well soul. An irreligious man has a 
sick soul. Health of body is not what we make it, but 
what God made it, harmonic action, not one thing in me 
and another in my neighbor, but the same thing all the 
world over. Not dependent on the clothes we wear, or 
the clime we inhabit, but identical in all costumes and 
under. all climes. The human body is one. Its laws 
are one. To be healthy we cannot live on food which 
God has made not food. We must conform to the 
laws God has established, or inevitably we are sick. 
So religion is not what we make it, but what God made 
it. Not one thing in me and another in you, but the 
same thing all the world over. Not dependent on the 
garb it wears, but the same thing in any garb. To be 
religious we must live according to God's moral laws. 
We must have faith, hope and charity. Without these 
we are dead. The world is dead. 



120 SERMONS. 

What is Faith? Faith, primarily, is fidelity of the 
will and understanding to the reason. You know that 
reason is one of the elements of the mind, as distin- 
guished from imagination and memory. Reason is that 
faculty of our being by which we discover right from 
wrong. The office of reason is to find out what is right. 
The nature of this office is two-fold : first, to discover 
what is a fact in nature; and second, to determine what 
facts are deduclble by its own laws from those natural 
facts. Nature is a body of facts God wishes to make 
known to man. Nature is a revelation to the reason. 
The office of reason is to discover those facts. Some- 
times things are not as they appear to be. Reason 
must sift realities from appearances. If a thing is dis- 
covered to be a fact, then it cannot possibly be unreason- 
able. All the reason has to do is to accept it. But a 
fact may be but a hook on which other facts hang. The 
office of reason is to determine what facts do hang upon 
it. Hence reason has powers by which it is able to go 
from one step to another. It has laws of its own. By 
those laws a thing is reasonable or unreasonable. If 
reasonable, it is right; if unreasonable, it is wrong. 
Reason implies knowledge; knowledge implies investi- 
gation. This brings other faculties into use. One melts 
into and employs another. Their employment leads to 
practical results. These results or fruits lead to prac- 
tical proof. Water runs down hill — nobody disputes 
that. But water is composed of two gases. That seems 
unreasonable. Investigation proves it is true. That 
truth leads to other truths. Thev combine in art — and 
man has manifold practical benefits which prove that 
water is composed of two gases. 

Faith, theologically, is not a different thing, but the 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



121 



same thing employed in a different sphere — on a different 
class of objects — bringing into combination with it other 
faculties, or elements, which the soul has. As nature 
is a revelation of physical facts to the reason, so the 
Bible is a revelation of moral and spiritual facts to the 
reason. If there was a flood, and the evidence of a 
class of facts called geological established it to the reason, 
then it cannot be disputed, however strange it might 
seem. If there was a Messiah, and He wrought 
miracles, and it is established by good evidence to the 
reason, then that fact cannot be disputed. Then other 
facts hang upon that fact, and what is reasonable is right, 
and what is unreasonable is wrong. Nature is the 
treasure-house for science; Jesus Christ for religion. 
It is the duty of the Christian to study the Scriptures, 
with an enlightened reason, as it is the duty of the 
scientific man to study nature — find out what Jesus 
teaches, what is to be believed. Hence we do not err 
in reasoning out our doctrines. We only err in not 
reasoning them out. It is our bounden duty to study 
and investigate, not apart and in hostility to each other, 
but together and in brotherly love. Belief acts upon 
practice, practice upon our well or ill-being. With the 
best church in the world, but a wrong creed, we must 
sink. Error is death. We must reason, out of the 
Scriptures, what, things are right. Hence faith is some- 
times used objectively, as a class of facts, a body of 
supposed facts to be believed in, and so we speak of 
the Mohammedan faith, the Romish faith, the Protestant 
faith. Then, sometimes it is used subjectively, as the 
belief itself of the facts, the exercise of the belief — 
reliance upon the facts — and so we say "we are justified 
by faith," "we are saved by faith," L e., by the sight 

16 



122 



SERMONS. 



we have, the reliance upon the precious truths of God. 
You see God does not work with us in one way, relative 
to our bodies, and another way relative to our souls. 
No! He has given us the same faculties, and they are 
to be used by us in all spheres of our being for legiti- 
mate ends. Faith involves a knowledge of how to use 
the reason— involves a cultivation of the mind. It 
spreads the great map of the universe and eternity 
before us, and asks us what we know about it. It 
spreads being out, and asks us what of that being we 
have absorbed, what in that being we ourselves are, 
what we are becoming, and what henceforth we are to 
be*. Faith is not blind. It is the only thing in man 
that really sees. Faith is the evidence, the certainty 
of things unseen. When faith is blind it is not faith. 
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is knowl- 
edge of laws, and the certainty of results to those laws. 
You here see it melts into hope, as one color of the 
rainbow into another. Hope is the object of faith — the 
purpose, spread before us, of being — the thing that life 
aims at; the thing the soul supremely desires; connected 
with faith as the crop is with the seed-corn*. The farmer 
knows the laws of nature. He sees and has confidence 
in those laws. That is his faith. The crop is in the 
ground, in the seed, in the rain and shine, in his labor. 
That crop is his hope. It is a resultant, of the nature 
of an effect to a cause. Whatsoever a man truly hopes 
for, that he also works for. If the soul perceives the 
higher life — if the virtues and the graces that were in 
Christ — if the glory which attaches to all the true chil- 
dren of God— if heaven, with its usefulness, its powers 
of love, its knowledge, purity, peace, have dawned upon 
our hearts— then the attainment of that condition is in our 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



123 



hearts, the supreme object of those hearts. That condi- 
tion is our hope; day by day, ardently, patiently, toil- 
ingly, the heart looks forward to the consummation. 
The farmer has no fixed quantity for his hope. He will 
not be satisfied with a quart of corn for a quart of seed. 
He wants all that a bountiful nature can yield. He 
knows he cannot control nature, but he knows nature is 
bountiful. Her bestowment has but one limit; that is 
his industry, his skill, his diligence. God helps only 
the man that helps himself. Be nature's resources what 
they may, be her capabilities in results what they may, 
all results to man depend upon his work; knowledge 
may be great, desire may be great, but without work 
all is nothing. There abideth knowledge, and desire, 
and labor, but the greatest of all is labor. The Christian 
pilgrim journeys — the Christian soldier fights — he has 
hope as an anchor within the vail — a likeness to Christ 
is his hope. In its pursuit no work is heavy, and so 
faith and hope melt into life-action, into Christian action. 
There 'are faith and hope and charity, but the greatest 
of all is charity. 

This renders it the less necessary, then, that I define 
charity. It means all practical goodness. It means all 
goodness practiced. At what costs, against all discour- 
agements, the right and wise thing — it means the doing 
of it, not dreaming about it, or talking about it. It 
suffereth long and is hind. It envieth not, boasteth not, 
is not 'puffed up, e. g., it is meek and lowly, full of 
humility. It is modest. It seeketh not its own; is not 
easily provoked; thinketh no evil. Its own heart and 
purpose are true. It believes other hearts and purposes 
to be true also. It rejoices not in iniquity. It rejoices, 
to cover it up. It hides a multitude of sins, and the 



124 



SERMONS. 



bigger the multitude the- more it seeks to hide it. It 
rejoices in the truth — wants to find that out at every 
hazard, though it be like plucking out the right eye, or 
cutting off the right hand. It stirs the whole being. 
It loves any agency that can promote it. It takes care 
that there shall be agencies to prevent iniquity, and all 
good agencies to establish truth and justice, religion and 
piety. It loves its neighbor as itself. It does not 
take for granted that it knows everything, but it beareth, 
believeth, hopeth, endureth. It is downright earnest 
and sincerity with one's own soul. It is contact of a 
spirit with the Eternal Spirit, so that whether there be 
traditions, or tongues, or knowledge, it knows that all 
that now is, is only an alphabet, just the beginning of 
being. It knows that it is but a child, seeing through 
a glass darkly, but faith and hope speak of a time when 
it shall know and be known — to that time it passes on. 
It seems a hard thing to do, and yet it is not hard ; or, 
even if it were, it is a great deal harder not to do it. 
In the not doing it, the soul is sick, the man is dead — 
we are a sounding brass, a tinkling cymbol — faith and 
hope are not. The doing is the only proof that we 
have any faith or any hope, and therefore "the greatest 
of all is charity." 

The question arises, have we any faith? I cannot 
decide for you. You cannot decide for me. It is a 
difficult matter, not without danger, for us to decide for 
ourselves. We have not the knowledge by which to 
judge others. We are very liable to misjudge ourselves. 
We are self-indulgent. The nearest approach we can 
make to a correct answer, is to take ourselves as an 
aggregate, to take the Christian church as a body. Do 
we read upon the face of Christian society, of the 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



125 



Christian world, that we have a true faith in the Son of 
God, a high-born hope. Is there, penetrating the Chris- 
tian masses a real and sleepless charity? This is the 
way we judge the Jews. This is the way Christ judged 
them. Was the body of their law a true faith? Was 
it any law at all? Had they not mistaken their notions 
for a divine law— and would not reason have taught 
them better if they would only let it? Was it wisdom 
so to guard that as to exclude all light? Was it faith 
which made them, when Jesus went anywhere, to watch 
Him, so as to find fault with all He did. Was it charity 
which made them complain when Jesus let loose a 
woman who had been bound eighteen years? because 
He did it on the Sabbath day, a thing contrary to one 
of their canons. Did the moral sense within them have 
opportunity to do its proper and perfect work? Did 
their condition as a people — their whole civilization- 
indicate that they too had faith, hope, and charity, i. e. ? 
that there was any religion among them, that they were 
loved of God? And do you see the force and beauty 
of the earnest appeals Jesus made to their reason and 
moral sense ? You see facts, fruits, tell the story. What 
of us? With all our knowledge of the Scriptures, our 
commentaries, our bodies of divinity, our churches, can 
it be said that the simple precepts of the Son of God 
are understood and appreciated — -carried out so that they 
live in practice ? Are we Christians as skilled in knowl- 
edge of any sort, but especially in a knowledge of divine 
things, as we ought to be? Are we educating our chil- 
dren in the simplicity, the modesty, the earnestness, the 
virtue and grace of Christ? Do we set before them the 
things of a high-born manhood, i. e., things that are 
eternal? Are our young men and young women char- 



126 



SERMONS. 



acterized by thought, by noble purpose, by solemnity 
and dignity of life and action? Oh, what a hope would 
dawn upon our race if we could only feel that! Our 
age is one of peculiar activity. Men believe in, have 
faith in, bread — in steam, in crops, in ships, in science, 
in office, in fame. Men do — do tve? Even if we do, 
there is nothing wrong in believing in them. We ought 
to believe in them even more than we do. An idle and 
lazy man is not a man. It ought to be a reproach to 
us, that we know not more of science — the grand things 
God has to reveal. These things belong to human de- 
velopment. They are to constitute a part of that mil- 
lenium toward which we are looking, when man shall 
not be a drudge any more, when all nature shall truly 
minister. Art and science have a glorious mission to 
fulfil for us. But, are not these things too much the 
all of our faith? They cannot live alone. They are 
but a body. They need a spirit. In themselves, they 
corrupt, grind down mankind, make us poorer. They 
beget selfishness and covetousness. They make luxuries 
for the few and pauperism for the many. The engine 
needs an engineer. Do you see the nature, the office, 
and value of religion? 

Does our faith go beyond these things? In other 
words, are we up in a religious faith at all? Is the real 
higher man cultivated ? the moral, spiritual part of us? 
Is there trust between man and man ? Is there confi- 
dence in integrity — in purity of motive and purpose? 
Is there fidelity in high trusts and sacred positions ? 
Is life more simple, more peaceful, more easy ? Is there 
less vanity, or deception, or hollow show ? Is the family 
tie more precious, and the family circle more pure? Is 
honor at home or abroad, in private or public, of greater 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



127 



value than gold or jewels ? Are men just? are we 
temperate ? are we prudent? have we any moral courage? 
are poverty and ignorance gradually disappearing ? Is 
man, of all things the one thing of unspeakable price ? 
Do our newspapers, the reflectors of the age, indicate it? 
Do murders and robberies and slanders — do defalcations 
and divorces indicate it ? Do our homes, our streets, 
our churches full of extravagance, full of fashion, full 
of sentiment, indicate it ? Are there any faithful ? are 
we not all skeptics, unbelievers ? have we then any 
religious, faith ? I do not know what some men mean 
by faith, but have we any faith such as God reveals to 
us in the Gospel ? I am alarmed at the suspicion, the 
mistrust which covers society as a cloak. We have no 
longer anybody that is pure and transparent, and dis- 
interested, i. e., what alarms me is rather the prevalent 
belief, that there is none. I believe there is more than 
is generally supposed. It would be impossible for our 
world to go on at all if there were not. But it is our 
unbelief in it which is painful. Out of the heart the 
mouth speaketh — charity thinketh no evil ; but our 
times think little else. Our public men, even preachers 
of the Gospel, are supposed to be selfish, crafty, ambitious, 
seekers of their own. The wonder is we have any true 
and faithful at all, because the true and faithful are too 
often only the marks for uncharity. Is a real faith dead ? 
is charity buried ? Is Christianity asleep in the arms 
of sentiment? in the Delilah embraces of earth and 
sense — of time and death ? Are we not near the last 
times ? When I come shall I find faith upon the earth ? 

What is our hope ? Have we a hope ourselves of 
releasement from self? Have we a hope that man will 
be redeemed from error and ignorance, from toil and woe ? 



128 



SERMONS. 



Have we a hope that knowledge and piety and moral 
beauty will oversweep this race and clothe it in blessed- 
ness ? We talk about the milleniurn. We believe the 
time will come when at the name of Jesus every knee 
shall bow. How much do we believe it ? How much 
do we hope for it ? How much of it do we sow, in toil 
and care and patience and labors of love ? Do you hope 
for all this, but hope for it without man's own agency 
and labor ? Do you expect Christ to come and work a 
miracle ? Did He do it at His first coming ? Does He 
write salvation upon the skies, or make it the burden of 
the winds ? If we lose faith in God and faith in man ; 
if hope dies in us, then charity dies and with it all things 
die. You see charity is life, the life God made life. 
All things else tend to decay. This is to quicken all 
things. Without it the whole fabric of life falls. May 
it not be for want of it that the fabric is falling? Faith, 
hope and charity are the soul of things, the divinity of 
our economy. Selfishness kills, Love vitalizes. Char- 
ity is the greatest of all things. You and I are called 
to think, to pray, to know God and ourselves, to put 
away from us the pomp and vanity of earth which are 
drowning so many of us in perdition, to put on Christ in 
His wisdom, His fidelity, His purity, His self-sacrifice 
for human good. We must believe more and hope more 
and work more, or we are lost and our world is lost. 
We can never have a Christian world except as we cease 
to have a Pagan world. We can never have a heaven 
in us nor around us till we banish all perdition out of 
ns and away from us. To you and me God looks, as to 
His people of old. To you and me, whether we be pro- 
fessors of religion or not, for our own good, He looks. 
Are we not all his people ? To you and me the world 



THE CHRISTIAN GRACES. 



129 



looks. Without this we are Pagan. Without charity 
we are nothing. Faith and hope culminate in this. 
Where this is not, faith and hope are not. The greatest 
of all is charity. 

My purpose, brethren, in every sermon I preach to 
you, is to build you up in the faith of Christ crucified 
for you. I try to quicken your thoughts, to warm your 
hearts and send you out with your loins girded and your 
feet shod, to a more earnest prosecution of your journey 
home. I do not know whether I succeed in my en- 
deavors. Possibly sometimes I rather discourage you. 
I may not always be understood, not from your fault, 
but from my own. I think sometimes I ought to appeal 
more to your hearts and less to your minds. But then 
I think again, such appeals among Christians, are one 
cause of the barrenness of our world in Christian good. 
There is nothing easier than to mistake a wise sentiment 
and nothing so fatal to us as a mistaken sentiment. I 
could dwell for you upon the great future and draw for 
you pictures that would please you. But so did not my 
master. He dwelt, and I ask you to observe how con- 
stantly He dwelt, upon the present, upon the duty of 
the hour — the practical — that which we know to be 
right. When He draws a picture of the future there is 
as much in it to alarm us, as there is to soothe us. This 
very day, He, by His precious word, hath taught in our 
streets and we are now to eat and drink in His presence. 
In this connection with the future, what picture does 
Christ draw ? Some such shall come at last after the 
doors are shut and shall not be able to enter. They 
will plead the fact but it will avail them nothing. Others 
from darker lands, will sit down with Abraham, Isaac 

and Jacob, while they who counted that they were chil- 

11 



130 



SERMONS. 



dren of the Kingdom will be cast out. Strive to enter 
in. That word strive means to agonize. Be very anx- 
ious about it. If Jesus teaches in our streets let us be 
careful to understand Him. If we eat and drink in His 
presence, let us not eat and drink unworthily. If we 
enter that door and be with Jesus, all the better that 
the glory should surprise us. You will find that you 
have taken no unnecessary trouble. We shall not have 
had too much faith, nor too much hope, nor too much 
charity. Let us be certain that we have some, and that 
what we have is real. I want that your calling and 
election should be sure. If it is, your reward will be 
greater than I could ever have told you, even though I 
should have spent all my time in telling you of it/and 
if your reward is great my joy shall be full. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

1 Corinthians 12: 31.— But covet earnestly the best gifts— and yet show 
I unto you a more excellent way. 

There were many things among these Corinthians of 
which the Apostle had to complain. They were fond 
of what they supposed to be philosophic speculation. 
Theories ran into disputes — disputes into all unprofit- 
ableness and evil. They neglected to cultivate the 
graces and virtues of the Gospel. Though nominally 
Christians, they were no better that other Gentiles. 
They had changed their name, but not their practice. 
They saw the folly of the past, but not the glory of the 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



131 



future. They perceived something of the emptiness of 
the world, but very little of the fullness of God. They 
did not live, they only talked about living. They did 
not covet life, but only the signs of life. 

They looked abroad upon the brotherhood and observed 
there a diversity of " gifts," the strange development of 
what appeared to them mysterious forces. These gifts 
endowed those who possessed them with extraordinary 
power and influence. These gifts had their degrees and 
their relative values ; and some were therefore preferred. 
The misfortune was, too many coveted one or other of 
these offices. They desired not to find whereunto God 
had called them, so that they might do God's will in 
submission and humility, but their carnal ambition set 
them to desiring office as a means jto their earthly eleva- 
tion. They thought Christianity was only a new vehicle 
on the old road. The spirit in them was that of Simon 
Magus. It was simple worldliness. It was opposed to 
God. And there are some passages which indicate that 
this spirit pervaded those who possessed the gifts as 
much as those who only desired them. Thus the gifts 
themselves were often not only neutralized, but sources 
of temptation and misfortune. 

The Apostle has been showing them that these develop- 
ments, endowments or gifts, are not strange — -not antago- 
nistic, one to another — not in reality preferable. The 
spirit that appoints one appoints all, and pervades all. 
Diversity is anecessity. Oneisas important and valuable 
as another. The body could not be the human body if 
it were all head, or all foot, or all eye, or all ear. All 
its members are co-equal and mutually dependent. 
With any one part wanting, the body would be imperfect 
— every other part would suffer. By means of the 



132 



SERMONS. 



diversity there is completeness. There is a question of 
deeper interest than that of being-a member; the question 
as to the health of the member, the spirit that animates 
it, its usefulness in its place according to its degree. 
Nothing existed for itself. The value of any one part 
was its service to the whole — that which was retired 
and obscure, if in its place, as important as that which 
was seen and prominent. 

This idea is one which is prevalent in Paul's Epistles. 
The spirit of that old world was a spirit of worldliness 
— the idea of form, not of essence. Law, spirit, life, 
was really unknown in any general degree, till Christ 
made it incarnate. It was the one thing supremely 
difficult to impress upon the heathen mind. It is still 
the thing supremely difficult to impress upon the human 
mind. To give life is to find it. To humble oneself is 
to be exalted. It is hard to make that believed. Yet 
it is an idea fundamental to a wise conception of the 
Gospel, of the work the Gospel has to do. Whatever 
God's plans for man — for the future might be, He will 
work only as He works by means, however slow they 
might be. If Christ is to effect salvation for a race, 
He will not enthrone Himself upon a star and come to 
us on a cataract of glory. He will come to Bethlehem, 
to mortal infancy, to human vicissitude, to earthly 
providences. He will trust to the slow years to work 
in nature's channels, to make known His person and His 
mission, He will thread the track of mortal footsteps, 
and manifest God in the maze of common vicissitude. 
If the kingdom of grace is to be a fact upon earth, it is 
to be — not by arbitrary action in God, not by mere wishing 
in man, but by slow development in the race itself. If 
God's kingdom is to be set up here, it is to be only as 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



133 



God's will is done upon earth as it is in heaven. It is 
a kingdom to be built — to grow. All expectations of it 
otherwise than as it is in us are visionary and void. 
Whatever the raptures of the prophets proclaim, are but 
results — facts standing in ultimate completion, viewed 
in the distance. But there is a road to them, long and 
meandering as to all things else. The manifestion of 
Christ to this world, is to be a manifestation of all that 
was in Christ pervading human action, because it is 
enthroned in the human heart. Your heart and mine 
filled with Christian greatness, overflowing in Christian 
work, broad and deep in Christian life, is the proclama- 
tion of Christ. Without it, my pulpit is vain, your 
gifts are useless. 

This would appear to be the very conception itself 
our church would convey to us in this season of the 
Epiphany — the conception of what a true manifestation 
of Christ is to be. If you examine, you will find she 
selects as a special Scripture for our instruction, the 12th 
chapter of Romans, one of the most practical contained 
in the Bible ; all of it hanging upon this idea of grace 
and virtue, by means of the exercise of the gifts and 
opportunities providence bestows. " Present your bodies 
a living sacrifice." Salvation is for time and earth as 
well as for heaven and eternity. " Ye are members one 
of another." The grace of one is somewhat limited by 
that of another, and the glory of Christ is delayed if 
His image is wanting to the church. Each has a ministry. 
Paul is addressing the people, not the clergy. There 
were no clergy in one sense of the word. Whatever it 
be, let each wait upon his ministering. There cannot 
be one soul too many, unless that soul be off the track 
where God put it. The providence which directs the 



134 



SERMONS. 



universe, directs this world — the human race and the 
church. There cannot be one tree too many in a forest 
— one leaf too many on the tree. There cannot be one 
man too many in this race, nor one Christian who has 
not his special and peculiar mission or gift. Every man 
by virtue of his antecedents — the accidents of birth and 
education, the experiences and contingencies of life, is ut- 
terly different from every other man. God meant he should 
be. No two faces are alike, because no two beings are 
alike. Individuality is as much a fact as if there were but 
one being in the universe. Mark the analysis here. The 
faces which create individuality are the most of them 
beyond the control of the individual. No man can make 
himself another man. No man can do another man's 
work, nor occupy another man's mission. He may get 
out of himself into another man's way, that is all. That 
which constitutes wisdom in any man — that which is 
the basis of merit for you or me, is the knowledge we 
have of our mission, and the fidelity with which we 
execute that. Herein lies the gist of moral being. 
Herein is the essence of your well-being and mine. He 
who has the truest conception of his mission, and is most 
faithful in its execution, is most serviceable to his fellow 
men, and therefore most conducive to the glory of God. 
Neither the Bible nor reason can suggest to us any way 
in which man can glorify God, except as he effects 
some true well-being in himself and in his fellow-men. 

There is then that class of gifts, or that degree, which 
cometh of what we call nature — cometh of providence, 
i. e., of God. The fact is patent. There is natural 
disposition, temperament, taste or preference. There is 
more or less reasoning, more or less perception, more or 
less skill. Then there are advantages or disadvantages 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



135 



- — of education, training, culture. Some are shielded 
and modeled within the sacred circle of home. Some 
are flung upon the world to get right or wrong side up 
as best they may. By all these means, each comes at 
last to be himself. 

This, however, does not touch what Paul means by 
the "gifts" we are to covet. You perceive no amount 
of coveting here could do much good. Any man may 
improve any faculty he possesses by culture and dis- 
cipline, but no man can materially change his organic 
nature. You cannot put brains into that head which 
has already all it will hold, nor skill, into that hand 
which knows no device. This shows us what Paul 
endeavors to show the Romans, that the potter has 
power over the clay. He knows what He wants. 
He does not, and will not, as some have imagined, 
make vessels just to break or destroy them. All the 
universe is His household, and He makes all vessels 
unto honor — because for His service — though one may be 
to be seen, and another to be obscure, and in that sense 
only, one to honor and another to dishonor. The gifts 
we are to covet, are the accessories to life, the positions 
and powers best adapted to, naturally growing out of 
our organic structure — the office for which our natural 
faculty, under proper cultivation, best fits us, whether 
it be in the artificial orders which man has created, or 
something new and peculiar. There is such a thing in 
life as vocation. That vocation has an object or aim 
beyond itself. There may be men who work without 
ambition, for the simple love of work, because somebody 
started them as part of a machine, and they must now 
from force of habit keep on. But generally men have 
a purpose. Under that purpose a motive. Men ought 



136 



SERMONS. 



to have a vocation, but what for? men ought to have a 
purpose, but what kind ? There you begin to see the 
" more excellent way." Here you strike the very essence 
of life itself. Here you touch the cause of the few suc- 
cesses, and of the manifold failures in • human life If 
you look at this social fabric a little, you will see that 
wealth is a power; that eloquence is a power; that 
skill in any thing is a power; that all these conduce to 
what we call position — that then this position itself is 
a power. All these powers constitute what Paul calls 
"gifts" — over and above nature's bestowment, and yet 
thereon dependent. They are weapons of offense or 
defense. They are instruments of weal or woe. Paul 
says, "earnestly covet them;" in other words, set your 
heart upon them ; in other words still, have an ambition 
after them. Now possibly to many of us this sounds 
strange, because we have been taught that ambition is 
somehow a wrong thing to have, which is all very true, 
if you mean the common ambition of common men. 
But search the records of time, and where will you find 
a more ambitious man than Paul himself, or where will 
you find a nobler character. It is not the ambition 
which is wrong, but it is the motive which inspires the 
ambition. When the motive is low and sordid, for mere 
petty selfish ends — to win a few flattering words from 
man, the admiration of a gaping crowd, the acquisition 
of that which panders to lust, the ambition is sensual 
and devilish. It degrades. The gifts, whatever they 
be, are curses rather than blessing — the greater curse 
in proportion, as they are greater gifts. They make the 
man a moral pestilence — a maelstrom sweeping down 
into death. Nor does it matter what the gift is if it 
panders only to vanity and folly, if its exercise be in 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 137 

unwisdom and self. It may stand here in the pulpit. 
It may move in grace, on the very crest of the social 
wave. All the good in it will be accidental. God has 
placed in us a- sentiment which urges us to excel. It 
is part of the warp and woof of being, and one of the 
most beautiful threads which compose the fabric. We 
have no word for the proper exercise of the sentiment 
short of wisdom — no word for the perversion of it short 
of selfishness. In wisdom man is glorified. Let him 
seek the loftiest flights. In selfishness man is cursed, 
and in it a throne is but a moral ditch. Herein lies 
much of human sin. We look upon these secondary gifts, 
these powers of wealth or position, or office without con- 
sulting ike jrrimar?/ — the basis God has laid. Some men 
are trying to get rich, who can never do any more than 
demonstrate that riches for some men are impossible. 
Give them a fortune to-night and they would give half 
of it away before they slept, and lose the other half the 
first thing in the morning. Some men are trying to be 
orators across whose souls the spirit of oratory never 
swept. Some people are aiming at social position who 
can never do any more than make society ridiculous. 
Some men are striving for political office, for surgical 
skill, for scientific distinction, who can never do anything 
more than block the wheels of progress and make wise 
men grieve. The world must carry them, and a sad 
burden they are to the world. All want to be in the 
first place, and so we jostle each other ivith our mistaken 
vocations. None of us know where our first place is. 
Few want to be themselves. Few want to be where 
God wants them to be. And so our high places are 
constantly tumbling down, and our low places are low 
indeed, because nobody is there to lift them up and 

18 



138 



SERMONS. 



make them a blessing. I think it might be shown that 
what we call " the prof essions" is very much of a snare, 
and the time will come in which, if they are not removed; 
our estimate of them will be very much reversed. The 
best profession for any man is that which he can best do, 
only he should do it without profession. 

And here we Christians have made a mistake. We 
have not set before our sons and daughters, objects 
proper for the exercise of their ambition. We have 
had no such objects possibly ourselves. We do not be- 
lieve that pride is of the devil; that meekness, mercy, 
and purity of heart, are of the better life. I know not 
where we shall go to find that humility is a virtue. We 
have not asked what we are good for; what service to 
our fellow men we can best render; but how distin- 
guished we may be, how comfortable we may make our- 
selves, how respectably we may live. To be obscure is 
worse than to be dead. We do not ask what endow- 
ments our children possess — what they can do for the real 
comfort and elevation of their race — but how they are to 
get on in life. We do not view life as a thing we are to 
make, but as a thing that is to make us. The church, 
the army, the bar, the office, squeeze in wherever bread 
and the signs of life can most easily be gotten. Humili- 
ating are the rivalries even in things called sacred — 
disgusting even to worldliness itself. Sometimes, just 
where ambition is most denounced, we find it in its most 
paltry and sickening forms. Sad is the perversion of 
talent — therefore frightful is the price of bread. Nobody 
tuants to work. Nobody wants to be of any service. 
God made us individuals, and we are working with all 
our might to destroy our individuality. Even in church 
membership we have nothing to do but to live like other 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



139 



people and dress like other people, and talk like other 
people. At the baptismal font I renounce the pomps 
and vanities of the world. At the sacred supper, I 
kneel in the flimsiest toggery a pompous and vanity- 
stricken world can provide. Men are discussing ques- 
tions — "how to reaoii the masses," "how to convert the 
world." A far more imperative question is, "how to 
reach the church — how to convert Christians?" The 
prime want of our world to-day is Christian ambition; 
ambition to renounce the world; ambition to be indus- 
trious; to do God's work with our hands, if we have no 
heads; with our heads if we have them — but with our 
hearts, have what we may. One of the saddest facts 
written upon our society, is the wretched perversion 
and prostitution of natural and acquired gifts. Society 
is rotting, because the salt that God provided has lost 
its savor. God wants us to be different, so he made us 
different, and a church full of real individuals would be 
a glorious sight, an invincible force. A fearful evil has 
grown up imperceptibly, unconsciously among us. 
Religion has been made to consist in emotion — in certain 
experiences — which may depend upon any one of 
manifold contingencies — temperament, food, society, 
seclusion, excitement. We have ignored reason, and 
practice, and real well-being here upon earth. In con- 
sequence, we wake and perceive the multitudes are not 
in the church — and worse than that, they are in poverty, 
in vice, in ignorance and crime. We form societies to 
reclaim them, when the one great society wanted is one 
to reclaim us. We manufacture more offices and send 
missionaries, when the great want is that we be mission- 
aries ourselves in the offices whereunto God sent us. It 
is well enough to think of dying, and we talk a great 



140 



SERMONS. 



deal about it, but it is time for some of us to think of 
living, and to begin to live. Think of the millions that 
die, but of the few that are missed. Most of us, in our 
exit from earth, perform our highest service. We place 
somebody under obligations, for we make room for 
another. There can be no reformation in the world till 
there is reformation in the church. There can be no work 
accomplished for God, except as we to whom God has 
given faculties for the work, use the faculties in the 
work for which they were given. All exertion outside 
of this is beating the air. The world, the church, this 
race, wants to-day, not office, not money, not societies, 
half so much as it wants Christian character — personal 
Christian influence in our homes, at our altars, in our 
streets, where there are few eyes to see it, and where 
for that reason it can be most effective. Talk of three 
orders of the ministry — what can three orders do where 
twelve hundred million are wanted ? The Croton Board 
can do nothing if it should stop raining. We could get 
along very well without these "gifts" if we had what 
is better than all gifts, the spirit of unself, the love of 
Jesus Christ, the wisdom that is from above, the essence 
of pure grace — in short, if we were true Christians, 
if we were saved ourselves. When we have that, 
there will be an epiphany — not before. All our epiph- 
anies will be limited to the proportion we have of this. 
Who hath it hath the Son of God and hath life. Who 
hath it not hath not the Son of Gocl, and hath not life ; 
nor can he impact any life in this world Or any other 
world. 

Do you catch no perception now of the meaning of 
the Apostle — "covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet 
shew I unto you a more excellent way." There are nature's 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE, 



141 



endowments, then there are positions and vocations and 
their powers— one or other of which we ought to have — - 
but above all, and better than all, there is character. 

It is a matter of no consequence to you in what circle 
of life you move, what church you belong to, how much 
money you have, how much you are in need of, what 
office you fill, but the matter of infinite concern to you 
is what are you in office, in church, in society. What 
are you with your gifts, natural or acquired. That is 
the problem that every day asks you to solve. Now 
it may seem strange, but with all our attempts to escape 
it, this is the one thing we are forever telling, what we 
are. Here is the great paradox of life. 'No man can 
tell his experiences to another ; your knowledge, your 
wisdom, you cannot give even to your son ; and yet 
that is the one thing you are forever expressing. Every 
man who hath an eye to see reads us through and through, 
We. can never cheat anybody at last but ourselves* 
Through our words, through our actions, through our 
clothes, people see our souls — or see that we have no souls. 
The giddy girl, the dandy boy, the pompous man, the 
silly woman, are to all but themselves a walking folly. 
Be what we will, we but express ourselves at last. Your 
very face is a ca/talogue of your thoughts, motives, habits, 
antecedents. Any true man can read it. It ought to 
be one we should delight to have God to read. Then 
it would glorify Him. But whatever it is, character is 
the one thing that will not be hid. It is the one power 
that survives all power. If we are like everybody else, 
we are nothing, and the world knows it. If we are 
weak and foolish, we catch at the froth of life, and the 
world sees it. This is character: to have a power within, 
This is noble character: to have a wise power within, 



142 



SERMONS. 



One reason why we run so much in crowds is, w # e have 
nothing in us. Half of us cannot entertain ourselves, 
and the world has to do its best to provide new follies 
for us. We spend our time abroad, because we are 
afraid to be by ourselves at home. Vice and folly pro- 
ceed from our incapacity for anything else. Christian 
wisdom loves soul-communion, rejoices in the truth. 
The pure soul feeds on principle, on law, rejoices in 
essences — never shrinking at little events or accidents — - 
seeing the grand results — when the sparks and scales 
produced by the hammering of Providence have died 
into dross. Strength inquires into and discovers where 
it is weak. The wise soul is a tower of strength to its 
race, to its times. By them this world is kept together. 
In them every artery of being pours its life-tide through 
this human mass. The impure soul sees nothing but 
the sparks and scales, the worthless dross. It has no 
great purpose. It needs props and bolsters. It requires 
sweet and soothing cordials. It quakes in the presence 
of truth. Weakness must hide its weakness and delve 
forever in itself, after any possible atom of strength. 
Such souls are this world's burden. To carry them 
galls our neck, keeps us lean and bony and evermore 
craving rest and life. We want no more of them. We 
ask to get rid of what we have. This was what Christ 
came into this world for — to destroy folly and evil, to 
make us sons of God, to take us out of that which is 
negative and selfish into that which is positive, which 
is noble, which is wise. Every voice of the here or the 
hereafter appeals to us, through every avenue of life. 
Now, a thought occurred to some of you just now, and 
it is worth thinking about. 

If the endowments of nature, and the contingencies 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



143 



of life, determine the gifts we ought to acquire, do they 
not, at the same time, account for the depravity we 
sometimes behold, and the vices and wrongs some men 
practice, perchance for our own delinquencies? Unques- 
tionably they do. And this fact opens to you many 
thoughts. It show us why it is. God, throughout the 
Bible, does not look upon us so much faulty as unfor- 
tunate. Recall the merciful accents of God's paternal 
love : — "I would not the death of a sinner, only that he 
should turn away from his sin and be saved." "Cease 
to do evil — learn to do well." Read the parable of the 
prodigal son. Come back — that is all— and there is the 
whole range of a father's love. If there are accents 
in the Bible other than these, they are to those who 
hide the truth, who repel the spirit, who are taught 
better — not the Publicans, but the Pharisees. If there 
are voices that call upon you for any action, it is not 
because Gocl is going to curse you by and by, but be- 
cause you need now to escape death and enter into life. 
It is not ivhat any of us have, tuhich is condemnation, so 
much as not having tuhat tue ought to have. It shows us 
another thing — that wisdom is not a spontaneous thing — 
not that which comes of nature, but that which is pecu- 
liarly our own — which makes merit in a spirit — some- 
thing that you can do and I can do, that you can be and 
I can be. It opens for you the whole way to your work, 
and to the determination of what you are. We are not 
to wait till men and women have grown into confirmed 
vices or ignorance. That result is almost inevitable 
from the wrongs which greet us in this world, from the 
channels that are dug by human sin. God says to you 
and me : go, in love to me — go, in renunciation of self — 
go, in the spirit of Christ, and stand at the door of life. 



144 



SERMONS. 



Jesus Christ says, to you and me, that blessed word, 
"suffer the little children to come." Begin there. 
What do the children of this world want? The bread 
that perishes— a little of that; but more than all, the 
bread that endureth to life eternal. They have minds; 
they have hearts. Mind and heart are the jewels of 
God. It asks in you a wide and useful knowledge — a 
deportment in life like the Master's—which shall be 
down within the reach of the lowliest. It asks that 
we help to make it easier to live. You see looming up 
through these thoughts, schools, asylums, homes for the 
friendless, books; you see simplicity, humility, kindly 
intercourse; you see your own feet threading the by- 
ways of life, and your hands toiling in human service; 
you see your sons and daughters trained to virtue, to 
work, to reality. In short, this providence explains 
itself. You cannot want an opportunity. Whatever 
your gift, providence will not let it rest. If you have 
money, the worst possible thing for you would be to let 
you keep it. If you have power, the worst possible 
thing for you would be to let it act without a check. 
If you have knowledge, you poor relations and the little 
beggar girl in the street ask you to impart it. If you 
have a heart full of sympathy, the aged, the orphan, 
the mute, send up voices that you must heed. Misfor- 
tune even, as all things else upon earth, hath its mission. 
If the wise minister to all things, all things at last 
minister to the wise. God is justified of all His works. 
I know not whether we shall not, at last, stand indebted 
more to the unfortunate, than the. unfortunate to us. 
The one unfortunate thing to us is, that everybody's 
work seems better than ours. Only the fool is satisfied 
with himself. A mystery and beauty attaches to all 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST, 



145 



lives but ours. This also is good. God would have us 
reach the essence of being and do our work, because it 
is His will. 

Beloved — young or old — sons and daughters of Zion, 
at the threshold of a new year, at this epiphany season, 
let me urge upon you the deeper realization of life, 
what it is, what it is for. The ancients had a fable — a 
Sphinx sat by the road side, and asked questions of 
every traveler. If he could not answer he was instantly 
swallowed. That Sphinx is life. It propounds to you 
problems which you must solve or be consumed. You 
need to think. Whatever God may have done for others, 
He has* been infinite in goodness to us. We ought to 
seek the highest gifts. We ought to do it in the spirit 
of Jesus. He is our model. He gave Himself — let us 
give ourselves. Therein is wisdom, therein is glory — to 
be oneself ', that oneself ivise. Life, so pursued, though 
it seem to us an infancy, and be clothed in swaddling 
bands, will grow into consistency and unity, as time 
advances — will stand at last invested in a beauty and 
power, without rent or seam, woven throughout. This 
is the " more excellent way" the way to the truth and the 
life everlasting. 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 

Colossians 1: 27. — Christ in you the hope of glory. 

This expression is fragmentary, and yet it embraces 
a full and complete thought. The whole sentence is a 
long one, and like many sentences in Paul's writings, it 
is complex. The Apostle has been speaking of Christ, 



146 



SERMONS. 



who He was, what He was ; of the Gospel, the preach- 
ing of which had been committed to him. This Gospel 
in its universality, designed for Gentiles as well as Jews, 
had not been through antecedent ages comprehended. 
How the Gentiles were to be partakers of it, had been 
a mystery, but is now a mystery no longer, being made 
manifest to the saints, to whom those among the Gentiles 
as well as others, God would make known what the 
glorious riches of this mystery is ; and this is what it is : 
" Christ in you the hope of glory ; " or as some translate 
it — "Christ among you the hope of glory," — either one, 
for He cannot be among us except as He is in us. 

What Christ was to the saints of Paul's time, that He 
has been to the saints of all time. That he must be to 
us, if we are saints, or are ever to be saints, "our hope 
of glory." 

Though in the Christian church there is much said 
of Christ, of the Christian hope, and of the future glory, 
it may upon calm reflection be reasonably doubted, 
whether the majority of Christians have any definite 
practical apprehension of either expression. When we 
speak of Christ our ideas are too often limited to a 
strange individual who lived two thousand years ago — 
walked amid the people of Judea, did many merciful 
works, and was finally crucified for human good. We 
do not understand by the word "Christ" all that in the 
eternal nature of things is anointed, sacred, wise, and 
that Jesus was Christ, because that was in Him. We do 
not understand that it expresses an essence, a character, 
an incarnation of God, i. e., of goodness — of all that is 
divine ; that without which immortality cannot be divine. 
When we speak of hope, or hear it spoken of, the idea 
we attach to it is too often not an idea. So far as it 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 



147 



expresses anything to us, it expresses simply what we 
wish for; rather, what we think might be desirable. So 
far as it assumes any shape at all, it is that of an object 
away off in the distance, toward which we trust some 
lucky current will drift us. It is the distant city we 
expect to reach without taking the train. It is the 
fortune we expect to enjoy, without one act of industry 
to gain it. It is the commanding position of the scholar 
without a day's study between. This is not hope, 
except it be the hope of the hypocrite, which shall perish. 
True hope is never indefinite. It may see the ultimate 
object as through a telescope dimly, but it knows where 
it is. It sees it as the boy toiling through the cube 
root, or quadratics sees the calculus. It sees — not so 
much it as the steps it takes to get to it. True hope 
is not something away off, but something here. It is 
the penny that is to become the pound. It is the sapling 
that is to become the oak. It is the student that is to 
become the sage. True hope is the thing you hope for 
in development. The farmer hopes for a crop when he 
has sown the seed, and sees it growing. When blight 
overtakes it and it ceases to grow, his hope dies. When 
we think of glory, perhaps there are few thoughts in 
which we stray further from a wise conception. No 
man's ideal can be higher than the man. I do not mean 
the man in his practice, because most men fall below 
their ideal — but the man in his true manhood. Your 
moral heroism will always be proportioned to your moral 
elevation. The Mohammedan has his ideal of glory. The 
Hindoo has his. We have ours. From careful observa- 
tion you will derive the fact that the majority of 
Christians conceive of future glory as constituted mainly 
of a place. The future glory is to be mainly material : 



148 



SERMONS. 



harps, crowns, thrones, dresses, idleness, luxury, noth- 
ingness. Few of us get beyond the sign to the thing 
signified. Your servant thinks that dress can make a 
lady. The vulgar imagine that carpets and mirrors 
make a home. We imagine that heaven is a large store- 
house filled with trinkets and robes. AYhen we die we 
have only to enter the palace of immortality and be 
clothed. We do not see the palace we are in now; the 
material which lies around us — all of it ours ; the fabrics 
of knowledge, wisdom, purity and love we are to weave ; 
that they who enter the glorious immortality, or the 
immortal glory, are they who come there clothed and 
not to he clothed. The true glory is not material. There 
is enough that is material — but it is not built up of dead 
stones, by a dead art. It is a universe of worlds — of 
order, of light, of beaut}'. Trees and flowers and song 
— all these are there : but they are not the glory. They 
are here, too. They are only the fabric out of which 
we are to weave our glorious garments. Soul is there 
— virtue, righteousness, usefulness, love is there, knowl- 
edge, the ear that hears, the eye that sees, that is glory 
— glory that thrills the soul with joy; that makes 
immortality blissful, that is glory. Every grace, humility, 
power to impart, riches that are like the exhaustless love 
of Christ teeming with blessing ; that is the glory. Xo 
sigh is there, no tear, no death, no grave ; because no 
soul is there to make a sigh, or tear, or death, or grave. 
That is the glory. Glory is getting rid of unglory. 
Glory is capacity, culture. Our local habitation may 
be upon this planet, or upon some chosen star ; but with- 
out these we shall not see God — there can be for us no 
glory. You have the pattern of this glory in Jesus 
Christ, and hope is the stairs along which you every day 



THE HOPE IN CHRIST. 



149 



take a step to the true glory. " Christ in yon the hope 
of glory." Christ in you the ideal of glory — -the pattern 
of glory. Our Gospel is the only thing upon earth that 
furnishes such a pattern. 

God did not intend that there should be to us any 
indefiniteness in any of His works. In all He has done 
there is a spirit — a meaning, beyond the letter or the 
mere act, or the thing in which the expression consists. 
He desired that we should know Him, A revelation of 
Him is not in Moses — not in the prophets, not in philoso- 
phers, not in nature. Moses and the prophets only 
reveal a coming Revealer. Philosophers only tell us 
a Revealer is needed. Nature is only the house in 
which the Deity resides. There is a sense in which all 
these reveal God. The house suggests a tenant. The 
philosopher infers the kind of tenant. They, i. e., these 
philosophers are not contrary to, but are only another 
degree of Moses and the prophets who have inquired 
more directly of God, and caught some glimpses of His 
being. The wise men of Persia know more of God than 
the high priest at Jerusalem. God wishes to reveal 
Himself, But what is He? Not a tangible form with 
the properties and accidents of matter. There may be 
somewhere such a form, but we cannot conceive of it. 
God is intelligence, God is law, God is power, God is 
love ; He is all these and more, yet not in mere abstrac- 
tions. He governs worlds, but He moulds a flower or 
listens to a child. God's perfection in the whole universe 
is that He is in every atom of the universe. He is 
greatest in the universe, only because He is servant to 
every part of that universe. In him— not only we, 
but every thing else has its being. His being is the 
essential element to all other being. He keeps the 



150 



SERMONS. 



house in repair. He is preserver as well as builder. 
But His moral beings — such is moral nature — have well 
being, only as they in a higher sense partake of God — 
assimilate God. Without His attributes God could not 
be God. Without partaking of those attributes we can- 
not be children of God. God is not Deity, because He 
is supreme — but He is supreme because He is Deity. 
The universe demands that God or goodness must be 
supreme. They are children of God, who, not from any 
unnatural and impossible election, or who, from belong- 
ing to a human family or nationality — or who, from 
attachment to a given church or organization, vote 
themselves to be such ; but those of the universal family 
— of any church who have that which resembles God, 
those who embody somewhat the elements of holiness. 
Without this we do not and cannot see the Lord. 

Behold the force of the incarnation. God assumed 
the proportions and condition of humanity. By means 
of the vicissitudes to which humanity is subjected He 
demonstrated the possibility of goodness. In demon- 
strating it He expressed for us what goodness is — not 
conformity with our dixits, but harmony with wisdom, 
truth, purity, and love. What He was in this humanity 
God wants us to be. They who are approximately what 
He was are the children of God; not they who call Him 
Lord, but they who do what He has bidden. What He 
was this humanity shall some time or other become. 
This is our Father's promise. This is the force of that 
word, He is to rule to the ends of the earth. At His 
name every knee shall bow ; not, as we imagine, that 
men are to reverence His name, but be the thing He 
showed them how to be. That will be the reverence 
God requires; the thing, not the shadow of the thing. 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 



151 



What he was the real children of God do become. I 
do not say that you or I become that, but God's true 
children become that. This is the force of those ex- 
pressions which represent Him as advocating us before 
God. If He brought Godhood to us, He carried man- 
hood to God. If He pleaded God's cause before us, 
He pleads our cause before God. As He said in His 
life before us, "this is God," so He says in His living 
before God, "this is man." Have patience with hu- 
manity — spare it. It is not so much the human form 
that is there, as the human nature. It was not so much 
the divine form that was here as the divine nature. 
What Jesus is, His humanity is. This is what time and 
grace shall make, humanity. One by one men are be- 
coming believers — that is, beings who see divine things 
and are transformed thereto. You or I may not be of 
that number. There are many deceptions, but the 
kingdom is growing — not in the show, the pretension 
that is upon the face of the world — but in the obscurity, 
the tribulation, the striving and persecution, which we 
too often think not to be of the kingdom at all. That 
kingdom is growing — not by observation, i. e., by that 
toward which men most direct their observation. 

Now, what was Christ? I cannot tell you. Paul 
cannot tell us. An angel could not tell you. I cannot 
tell you what any essence is. I cannot tell you what 
skill is. You can see it, if you have an eye to see it. 
I cannot tell you what genius is. You can see it, if 
you know how to see it. Time itself will not tell us 
what Christ is. They alone know Him who dwell much 
with Him, who have ears to hear and eyes to see. "In 
Him all fullness dwells." Paul tries to tell us — "He is 
the image of the invisible God" — the reflection — the 



152 SERMONS. 

best portraiture that can be made. — "In Him were 
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
'•'He is wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and 
redemption." He was all this for us, for all men. When 
we read this, we think all we have to do is to confess 
that it is true, and by and by, after death, He will pre- 
sent Himself this in our stead; and sometimes we call 
that faith. This is our mistake- — great mistake. He is 
this to them that believe. And some people think the 
Christian does the race injustice in making the limita- 
tion; and when you show it to them in the Bible they 
say then God is unjust. You see, then, how it defines 
who the believer is. He is the believer who, through 
Christ studying him, dwelling with him, becomes wise 
and righteous and sanctified and emancipated from sin. 
Our colleges are to us, Latin and Greek and mathematics 
and science. But to whom are they Latin and Greek 
and mathematics and science? Why, to those who by 
means of them acquire Latin and Greek and mathematics 
and science. They do not keep anybody out, and yet 
there are millions to whom they are nothing. Christ 
was love and goodness and usefulness. Christ was sim- 
plicity and humility and purity. Christ was natural, 
without pretension, and modest. Positively and nega- 
tively, He was innocence and virtue and service. He 
was beside this, knowledge and power. Knowledge or 
intellect grows out of morals, naturally. The nation 
which has the highest moral culture will, of necessity, 
have the highest intellectual development. To do God's 
will is to know all doctrine. And, for aught we know, 
all power as naturally grows out of knowledge. There 
is much in nature to indicate that it does. This Christ 
suggests heaven. Imagine a community of beings 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 



153; 



like Christ, and you get your highest conception of 
heaven. In such thoughts as these, the promises of 
God become luminous to us. In such thoughts as these, 
you see why the promises are limited to the believer— 
not to you and me, that assume to be believers, but to 
the true believer. In -such thoughts as these many 
words of Christ find explanation. "Lay up treasure 
in heaven." "He that heareth these sayings of mine 
and doeth them is a wise man." "In doing God's will 
to the very least of His creatures, is doing it to Him," 
Believing in Christ means something. "You are my 
disciples if you do whatsoever I command you"— not 
otherwise. " Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear 
much fruit." It is the heart to do, God wants us to 
have. This Christ is the most glorious being the human 
mind has ever been called to contemplate. Whatever 
of excellence, whatever of virtue, whatever is lovely or 
of good report, is in Him. Science, peace, harmony, 
time to think and understand the universe, heart to 
comprehend and beat to heart, love that rejoices in 
loving, all that is there, without a limitation of alloy or 
artifice, of time or space. All that is there is glory, 
pure, perfect, eternal. That is in Christ. He is the 
believer's hope of glory, his ideal. 

Into this God desires us to be transformed. For this 
cause Christ is come, to destroy the works of the Devil, 
and make us sons of God-— to root them out of us, and 
enthrone the works of righteousness. 

It is a law of our moral being, that we grow into a 
likeness of that we set our heart upon. So far as is 
possible we grow into the very thing. Find out a man's 
ideal, and you find out the man. Time does not permit 
us to enter upon this subject, for it is one of wide extent; 

20 



154: 



SERMONS. 



but you have observed the miser carries his misery even 
in his face. The soul transforms even the body. He 
who hates petrifies into hatred. It matters not whether 
the object hated is worthy of hatred or not. If you 
hate your enemy even, in the sight of God you become 
the thing that ought to be hated. The wise man cannot 
hate. The worldly and frivolous grow every year into 
insincerity and shadow; the superstitious every year 
more and more into superstition; and the wise and holy 
more and more into sons of God. By this law a nation 
gets its national characteristics, and gradually grows 
into the incarnation of the thing upon which its heart 
is set. So he whose hope of glory is Jesus Christ will 
grow into a likeness of Christ. He only whose heart 
is set upon Christ is the Christian. They alone are the 
children of God. 

Now, I do not know how these thoughts strike you, 
but I do know, if you wisely reflect upon them, you 
will find them coincident with the Word of God. I do 
know there are many mistakes existing in the general 
Christian mind, relative to the topics to which these 
thoughts relate. " The kingdom of God is righteous- 
ness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" a The king- 
dom of God is within you." The kingdom of God will 
come not before, and only, as His will is done on earth 
even as it is in heaven. These thoughts help us to un- 
derstand what we are for — namely, to be agencies for 
doing God's will and causing it to be done, i. e., our 
being on earth is to partake of J esus Christ, to embody 
what He was. He set us example that we might follow 
His steps. They help us to understand our relations 
to the church — what the church is. The true Christian 
makes the church, and never the church the true Chris- 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 



155 



tian. Christianity is not a thing of beliefs, of human 
organizations — not a thing of selfish experiences and 
internal contemplations, which are often painfully delu- 
sive — things of mere assumption, dependent on what 
we eat, or upon the constitution inherited from our 
parents — it is a thing of being. One of its objects was 
to release us from beliefs and organizations. They are 
things that are divided unto all people under heaven. 
God wanted His people to have something more than 
the heathen had; wanted us to be a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works, doing all things that were good 
and profitable unto men. The Christian church is the 
blessed company of all faithful people ; and where there 
are no faithful people there is no church. Christianity 
is not simnly an agency whose wprk is to contend with 
sin. Our general conception of it is, that it is merely 
one side in a warfare. We do not think so of the sun, 
though it is true that light is opposed to darkness. The 
darkness goes because the sun rises. His rising is life, 
and health, and growth. By the sun our world is full 
of beauty. Christianity is a moral sun. The Christian 
is a light. It is the sunlight our world wants. Our 
work is not a contention with death, but a renewing of 
life. The sun can do nothing for putrefaction and decay, 
except make them worse. But it warms the germ, 
it quickens the- plant, it matures the fruit. Each ray 
does its work where it falls. One ray does not join with 
others and delegate its powers. The Christian cannot 
delegate his powers. The supposition that we can, has 
cast a blight upon our world. It is not organization, it 
is not money, if is not music, it is not anything outside 
of us that can redeem this world. We may have 
splendid churches, we may have splendid preaching, we 



156 



SERMONS. 



may have splendid music, but without righteousness, 
the worse off we shall he. We think these things ought 
to attract, hut we think wrongly. Let the present 
condition of human society testify. What we actually 
sow, that we actually reap. Sow to the flesh, and of 
the flesh we must reap corruption. Temperance societies 
may redeem a soul from death, but it is a work of des- 
peration. Free Masonry and Odd-Fellowship may create 
an artificial brotherhood and mitigate poverty and dis- 
tress, but they are to what we really want what the 
watering pot is to a shower. Let the showers cease, 
and the watering pot itself must be empty. The 
church — the churches — with all their machinery of 
preaching and charities and "good works," can do 
nothing, if you and I are not Christians. _ You can 
relieve the poor — not by giving them rich dresses to 
make for you in which to serve the world, to pander to 
your pride, to set up distinctions which make the poor 
feel that they are poor, and make them poorer by setting 
them to imitating your example — not by raising cigar 
factories. There is much talk of the much employment 
which is found for vjomen in making cigars. Has all 
our civilization brought us only to the life and death 
question, "how are we to get bread." It would so 
appear. That is what looms up out of the problems 
which are grinning at us through the din and dust of 
our chariot wheels. Can we confess that with all the 
glory we talk so much about, we have so utterly, cruelly 
and ignominiously failed. And then, too, can you con- 
template the thought of a woman living to make cigars. 
Such an eternal machinery for a puff of smoke! Do 
we not indeed need another hope of glory? Are we 
not like the man who had his desire that all he touched 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 



157 



might turn to gold— with gold enough- -but dying for 
want of bread? What is to be done? How are we to 
relieve the poor? Not by creating labor-saving machines 
which pander to our lusts. Experience proves that the 
more of all this we have, the more pauperism there is, 
the more wretched are the masses. Your luxury and 
mine is starving the children of God. Man doth not 
live by bread only. All these things do not touch man- 
hood at all. The more we get, the more we want, and 
man is still the drudge, bowed to the earth, ground into 
the dirt. In our notions of a warfare, instead of the 
thought that we are to be a light and salt ourselves, the 
devil makes more recruits than we. True riches is to 
want little — not to have much. True riches is to know 
how to work ourselves, not to set others to work. We 
want to take men and women out of festering cities, and 
send them out to till the soil, to commune with nature, 
to get the bread God will give and to look up and thank 
Him for it. I am weary of the hypocrisy and cant 
which prates so much about the preciousness of human 
souls. The real truth is that human souls are held by 
us the cheapest things in the universe of God. If you 
see apples on the ground, if you see them in the gutters 
or kicked along the street, you know apples are cheap. 
The wretched boys and girls, ragged, dirty, ignorant, 
without God or guide or school — that is our expression 
of the value of a human soul. The slums of our cities, 
the "water streets" of our towns, they express our 
estimate of this humanity made in the image of God. 
Our finery, our palaces, they express our pride and our 
estimate of ourselves. Not to do for the least of God's 
children is not to do at all for God. That is not out of 
my conjectures. It is the standard of the Saviour, It 



158 



SERMONS. 



is the measure of our .Christianity. It is the gauge of 
our faith. Having an ideal of glory other than Christ, 
is to be lost at both ends of this humanity, whether we 
be within our artificial organizations or outside of them. 
Flesh is not fish because you take it out of the water, 
and the worlding is not a Christian because you baptize 
him. Living in the conception that Christianity is a 
warfare, and the church an organization, we leave the 
enemy till he is a fearful enemy indeed. Little spirits, 
once pure and sweet and precious, are allowed to grow 
into desperate vice and crime and wickedness. Wisdom 
would say, I will take them in their purity and inno- 
cence and preciousness, and train them into knowledge 
and goodness, and make them a power for God — not for 
hire, nor for policy, but for the love of souls and love 
of Christ. I think the angels must weep when they 
look upon the waste of time, of talent, of opportunity 
in those who call themselves Christians — precious things 
of God, squandered on bubbles of the earth, and we 
living in a name. What we want is to be Christians. 
What the world wants is to have Christians in it. What 
this humanity needs is not more work to do for the body, 
but less of it. More time to breathe, to think of God, to 
work for soul. What you and I want is not more clothes 
and houses for our bodies, but more raiment and habita- 
tion for our souls. What you and I want to be, is not one 
more body to be worked for, but one more spirit to beat 
and breathe for somebody else. Till we have renounced 
the pomps and vanities of the world, and love our 
neighbor as ourselves, we have not Christ for our hope 
of glory; and till we have Him in sincerity and truth, 
we have only that hope the destiny of which is to die. 

The great trial which has come upon us — which is 
coming more potently upon us every day, is this moral 



OUR HOPE IN CHRIST. 



159 



trial. It is true this trial comes to every generation ; 
but to some more insidiously than to others — to none 
more insidiously than to us. We have % great wealth 
and much power of art, and of science. But what is to 
be its employment ? What purpose is it all to subserve ? 
These are solemn questions to us. We are stewards, 
we are agents. Of us God asks the fruits of the vine- 
yard. Are we to be transformed into statuary like 
Greece ? into houses and clothes like the Romans ? into 
untruth, vice and degradation like the heathen? If so, 
then where is the superiority of our faith? What is 
the salvation we talk about in Christ? His salvation is 
that it takes the oppressive yoke away. Is that salva- 
tion, which saves us from the best things God has made? 
Oh, how we have brought reproach upon our Master, 
and no man layeth it to heart. The heathen say, " where 
is now thy God?" In him the prisoner was to leap to 
burst his chains, and all the sons of want were to be 
blessed. Shall it ever be ? Shall we be turned into 
men and women? into mind and morals ? into knowledge 
and culture and real soul ? into righteousness and peace 
and joy in the Holy Ghost? If into these, then where • 
is the process to begin, and by what agencies to progress? 
Where or how can we influence its beginning and progress, 
except as we begin and carry it on in ourselves? You 
and I have but a short time to live. We shall not be 
able to come back and rectify our mistakes. Nobody 
will answer at the dreadful bar for us. Can we afford 
to be mistaken ? So strong is the current of error and 
mistake and delusion even among us Christians, I 
almost despair of seeing the general course arrested. We 
can only each one pause for ourselves. Do you ask me 
what you are to do ? I say, take Christ for your hope 



160 



SERMONS. 



of glory, your ideal, your pattern ; set your heart upon 
it. I do not say take His name in mere profession, but 
study Him, what he was, what He said ; go and do as 
He did, live as He lived. It is not an easy thing to do, 
but the longer we delay the harder it is, and beyond a 
certain point it is impossible. One saved soul, one that 
deals honestly with itself, one that rejoices in all truth, 
shall be for the glory of God, and bring other souls to 
the Kingdom of Heaven. Into what is this life to result ? 
Is Christ Jesus our hope of glory. 



BAPTISM. 

Luke 1: Y6, 79. — And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: 
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give 
knowledge of salvation unto His people, by the remission of their sins, through 
the tender mercy of our God ; whereby the dayspring from on high hath 
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of 
death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. 

This is part of the exclamation of Zacharias at the 
circumcision of the infant John. These utterances, 
among other peculiarities, have this in particular ; that 
while speaking of John they express much more of 
Christ. There is hardly a line of them, or an element 
in the circumstances which occasioned them, which is 
not profoundly suggestive. 

The first words of the passage I have quoted are im- 
pressive : — u And thouj cliildr Here was a babe but 
eight days old. Zacharias has no misgivings as to his 
future. Across all the contingencies incident to child- 
hood and youth — across all the dangers, physical and 
moral, he beholds the maturity and mission of the being 



BAPTISM. 



161 



before him. " Shalt be called."— That is the Hebraic 
expression for " Thou shall he" Time shall make the 
fact, so that men shall look back and see thou wast, " the 
prophet of the Highest" Zacharias knew all this, because 
it had been " revealed ' to him," as we say. But many 
queries rise up here. It has been customary to view 
the birth of John as miraculous— the circumstances 
conducing to it as supernatural. In that view men have 
discovered a fixed purpose— an exercise of arbitrary 
will-power, which runs out into what is ordinarily called 
predestination. It is not easy to define many of the 
terms in use among persons called theologians, such as 
"predestination," "'miracle," and others. I shall not 
attempt a definition. It is Yerj evident, however, upon 
close observation that we have been too much in the 
habit of finding miracle in the Scriptures, ascribing 
arbitrary action to the Almighty— viewing facts through 
narrow openings, giving rise to words, which so far as 
they express anything, express that which is impossible. 
Such a word is that word "supernatural." Even if God 
ever does anything arbitrarily, in an absolute sense, it 
must be according to His nature, perfectly natural for 
Him to do it, and therefore not sw^rnatural. Nothing 
can be supernatural. Fix any fact, and that fact is 
inevitably natural. That there is a presiding intelligence 
in the universe— a will that uses all agencies and instru- 
ments, including the will of minor intelligences, cannot 
be doubted. The universe is one vast workshop. The 
great Master-workman understands the machine, its 
purpose, and the work of all subordinate workmen. 
The will and intelligence of those subordinates is as essential 
to His plans as the dumb atoms on which those subordinates 
act, and are just as much taken into His calculations. 



2] 



162 



SERMONS. 



In itself nothing is final. God and a universe imply 
eternity. Eternity implies progression. Progression im- 
plies a plan. That part of the plan within our field of 
view, is the part that becomes finite. All is natural; 
but much of the natural is beyond our vision. That is 
all. In the sense of wonder fulness, every act is a miracle. 
Every event is miraculous. That the circumstances of 
John's birth were remarkable cannot be questioned. 
The age of the parents — the vision of Zacharias, whatever 
its nature might have been, make it impressive. But 
not more remarkable or impressive are these than the 
circumstances antecedent to these. Had nothing con- 
spired, was there no law conducing through the ages, to 
bring about just those circumstances themselves ? Four 
hundred years before, Malachi said, "Behold, I will 
send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before 
me." A hundred years before that Isaiah said, "the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make his paths straight." If Isaiah 
were antecedent to John, was there nothing antecedent 
to Isaiah? Did all go at hap-hazard, and God only 
come in at intervals to make Himself apparent ? Every 
day and everywhere there is a providence. That provi- 
dence is at once natural and miraculous. Wonderful, 
because it is natural. The Master-workman never 
slumbers and never sleeps. That is what we forget. 
Laws are forever at work. All things work by their 
laws. That is all the predestination there is. By my 
will-power I can find out those laws, or know nothing 
about them. By my will-power, which is itself one of 
these laws, I can accept or reject. If I accept, I can be 
a co-worker with God. If I reject, I can stop nothing 
but my own being. I fall to the regions of all waste 



BAPTISM. 



163 



and darkness. That is all that is to be lost — not so 
much that we are lost to the universe as that the universe 
is lost to us. Every child born into the world hath its 
being, and the powers of that being, by agencies reaching 
back through all time. The powers born with a being 
determine that being's work. Your work is before you. 
Every man is born to his time. God's providence is 
unique. You can enter upon a grandeur that is eternal, 
or you can sink into a nothingness deep and everlasting. 
Nature is infinite in all her ways. God risks none of 
His battles upon a single soldier — one or one hundred 
is of no consequence except to the soldier himself. 
When the trumpet sounds you can march in the front 
rank, or march not at all. There will be enough for 
God's purpose whether you have part in it or not. A 
bribe, a fear, an accident may detain you, but God's 
plans sift out the brave and the true . Every day is a battle 
day. Every life is a battle force. But there are clays 
when God's arrangements reach peculiar combinations. 
Those days bring all the lines into action. They are 
as all things else are, only in the "fullness of time!' 
Such a day was John's. But such a day in a sense, is 
every man's ; for every day is but the fullness of the 
past. You are born with a chance which is not a chance 
— born with a duty which is not a duty, but high privilege. 
Every father and every mother stands beside the cradle 
of their new-born child and says, " And thou, child." It 
is the prayer of hope — the prognostic of affection. But 
we have not always faith to say " Thou shall be called." 
We think it is all chance. There is no God, no grand 
life work, no great purpose before the ages, no doing 
and suffering, and glory to which we can bid them in 
God's name go out. These special providences, i. e., 



164 



SERMONS. 



these remarkable combinations, come not as exceptions, 
but as illustrations. In the dissection of one man, you 
dissect mankind. In the analysis of one Scripture fact 
you analyze all similar facts. To those who are right- 
eous, walking in all the ordinances and commandments of 
the Lord, blameless — there is ever an angel presiding. 
God wants us all to be John's — going out in the power 
of Elias, to make strait the way before Him, to whom 
shall be given all glory that was, and is, and ever 
shall be. 

Other queries arise. These utterances were made 
upon the occasion of the circumcision of John. Why 
was John circumcised ? Why was John not baptized ? 
Whether the practice of baptizing, at the time of John, 
may be said to have prevailed among the Jews or not, 
John was to be in a peculiar manner connected with 
baptism. In all the record we do not find that he was 
ever baptized. Was he, than whom, among all those 
born of woman there was not a greater — was he indeed 
unbaptized? Does this throw no light upon the force and 
character of outward ordinances? From the day of 
John's circumcision for the space of thirty years, we 
know nothing of John, except "that he waxed strong 
in the spirit, and was in the wilderness till the day of 
his appearing unto Israel." That appearing is not left 
in dim and uncertain outlines. He began and continued 
to preach " Repentance." This was John's great cry. 
The axe is laid at the root of the trees. Old formulas, 
dogmas and pretensions, he says, God is going to destroy 
-—mark this. He is much more identified with the sub- 
ject of repentance than with the subject of Christ, as if 
all the preparation the Messiah needed was the turning 
of the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the 



BAPTISM. 



165 



just. The very object of Christ in coming— the very 
mission of God in Christ is prefigured in this life-work 
of John. Repentance unto life is the subject of Christ. 
John was a mighty reformer. He did no miracle. 
There was no need of any. There was everywhere dis- 
satisfaction with the mechanical religion of the doctors. 
There was high expectation, or at any rate desire of a 
Messiah. He preached repentance, not legal ablution 
and expiation of any sort, but a change of heart and 
life— a renewal of being. God did not care for the 
mere offspring of Abraham, he said, but for those who 
did the works of Abraham. " The Kingdom of Heaven 
was at hand." The expiation for sin was to be offered. 
All were to be made children. It was needful they he 
children indeed. He preached a higher walk with God, 
a purer life. He became therefore John the Puritan. 
He did not get his name " the baptist" because he 
baptized, but he was the baptizer because he proclaimed 
purity. I think it will appear upon sound reflection, 
that John obtained this name "the baptist," first of all 
as a term of reproach — just as the very name Christian 
itself was, at the first, as Puritan, Methodist and 
Quaker have been in modern times. The extreme aus- 
terity of his life originated it. It may be inferred in 
some degree directly from a passage in St. John 3: 25. 
" There arose a question between some of John's disciples 
and the Jews about purifying" where another word, a 
synonym, is employed to convey the idea. In the 3d 
chapter of Luke it expressly says he preached the 
baptism of repentance, not the baptism of water only. 
The Jews were not so spiritualized that they could be 
separated from all symbols. Baptism, washing, immer- 
sion, dipping, using water in some way ; and from the 



166 



SERMONS. 



very nature of things,, that way must have varied ; 
baptism in some form had long been the emblem of 
purification. It had long been a ceremony among the 
the Jews. John accepted the form. So far as any 
form was needful, there were force and beauty in this. 
Those who could hear him, those who resolved to accept 
his teaching came and were baptized. This purpose of 
high moral purity — of parting with all that could defile, 
was doubtless all that John saw in his baptism. Bap- 
tism did not impart something to the recipient, nor take 
anything away ; but the recipient made it the expres- 
sion of his purpose. This is indicated in the remark of 
John to the Messiah, when He presented Himself to be 
baptized, as much as to say, " Thou art purer than I — 
the greater cannot be blessed by the lesser." " I have 
need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me ! " 
John accepted what he already found. Christ did the 
same thing, accepted what He already found. With 
this difference, John baptized unto repentance. It 
meant no more with him than purification. Christ 
made it a sacrament— understand that word — a monument. 
You know the word sacrament means " an oath" — a last 
appeal, something by which we are certified — hence the 
Lord's supper is a monument of Christ's death and 
sacrifice. Do this, &c. — hence baptism is a monument 
— monument of what ? Of the fact that He revealed 
a triune God — of the fact that God is Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost. At His baptism, this was the great fact — 
He was there, a voice was there, a dove was there — 
men believed already in a Father God. They saw and 
accepted Christ. They not yet knew of the Holy Ghost. 
Hence this became the great feature of Christian baptism. 
Christ connected baptism inseparably with the Trinity. 



BAPTISM. 



167 



His last commission was, " Go and baptize in the name," 
&c. After the resurrection of Christ, as we read in 
the Acts of the Apostles — those who had been baptized 
of John — some of them at least — were baptized over 
again, and why? because " they knew not whether there 
be any Holy Ghost." John accepted baptism as an 
emblem. Christ accepted it and enlarged it, and made 
it a monument, and this is a fact in my opinion far too 
often overlooked ; for as long as we have baptism, we 
have a certainty that Christ revealed a Trinity. The 
doctrine of the Trinity can then, only be denied by those 
who think they are a better revealer than Christ. Bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper are our two great sacraments. 
Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb were the two great 
sacraments of the Jews. Our two took the place of 
their two. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant 
with Jehovah. " The Lord our God is our Lord," — over 
and above, and distinct from all that the heathen falsely 
call gods. Baptism is the sign of the covenant with 
Jehovah, the same Jehovah, only explained — omnipotence 
in a triune essence. That is the God with whom our 
covenant is made. As monumental, any believer can 
baptize another. It is better that baptism be public, 
because then the object of the monument is more directly 
effected. Any believer can baptize his child — not only 
can, but ought to do it, or have it done. The child may 
afterwards accept the truth or not. He ought to accept 
it, but in either case we have done that which it was 
our duty to do — "fulfilled all righteousness" — made a 
testimony. 

The fact of baptism, therefore, becomes a testimony 
on the part of him who administers it, or has it admin- 
istered; or, in the case of an adult baptism, the cere- 



168 t SERMONS. 

inony is a testimony both of the faith of hini who ad- 
ministers and of him who receives it. I do not say 
there is nothing else in baptism: I only say this much 
is there. There are those who believe that baptism 
itself imparts something to us. That may be, but there 
is nothing in Scripture or in reason that can prove it. 
Still, I do not pretend to know all that is in baptism. 
He who brings faith to it. gets faith by it, and we get 
according to what we bring. Christ had no sin to wash 
away, no baptismal grace to receive. But He had a 
duty to perform. There is the grace — to do the duty — 
obedience. He had the baptism already which enabled 
Him to institute baptism — the grace in that, as in all 
things else, "to fulfil all righteousness." 

This leads us to ask what baptism is. Is it a form 
of any sort? Does it depend upon anything outward, 
anything material, anything mechanical? If so. then 
John was never baptized himself. If there were any 
saving efficacy in the simple ceremony itself, then John, 
greatest among men, as he was, lacked that efficacy. 
"We do not know that in this sense the Apostles were 
baptized. Paul was, but Paul laid no great stress upon 
outward baptism. He says, "Christ sent him not to 
baptize, but to preach the Gospel." "'I thank God that 
I baptized none of you, save Gaius and Crispus." He 
said, " circumcision was not that which was outward in 
the flesh, but that which was inward in the heart;" and 
if that were true of circumcision, how much more true 
of baptism? Christ, even after His outward baptism, 
said He had yet a baptism to be baptized with. He 
told His disciples they were to drink of His cup and be 
baptized with the baptism He was baptized with; and 
throughout the language of Christ and of the Scripture, 



BAPTISM. 



169 



there is this high, inward, spiritual meaning given to 
the word, till we can say of baptism as Paul said of 
circumcision, neither baptism availeth anything, nor 
unbaptism, but a new creature. That is all that ever 
did avail, or ever will. It is that which all the fore- 
runners of Christ, all the agencies of God, have asked — 
"a new creature." To raise questions whether baptism 
is the use of a drop of water, of a pint, or of an ocean, 
is mere trifling, it is playing with words. It is not see- 
ing baptism at all. It is unworthy of a Christian. It is 
one of the things which disgust the wise and thoughtful 
and dissipate the forces of our religion. John said, Christ 
would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. Did 
John mean we were to be bathed in flame, pr that only 
the martyrs who perished at tha stake had a true 
Christian baptism? Without the true baptism, even an 
apostolic ceremony can avail us nothing. Simon Magus 
was baptised, but Simon continued dead in trespasses 
and sins. With the true baptism — whether we have 
the outward or not- — like John the Baptist, we are the 
children of God. 

Baptism is the entrance into the church. That also is a 
figure. To have the true baptism is to be in God's 
church, in the church of Christ, wherever we may be 
— be our outward belongings what they may — whether 
narrow and blind souls choose to recognize us or not. 
There is but one church — never was but one — never will 
be but one — the church of the Firstborn — the church 
of all ages — the church of God's redeeming and sancti- 
fying love. In that are all the souls that are like the Son 
of God. 

This is the key Zacharias touches in these utterances 
over John. Zacharias was a member of the church. 

22 



170 



SERMONS. 



He saw the design of God in all time, to bring all men 
to be sons of God. The question is sometimes asked, 
when did the church of God begin — when was the 
kingdom of Christ set up? But can any man tell us 
when it was not set up? Before the manger, before 
Bethlehem itself, before David, before Abraham, before 
Noah, before Eden, before Adam, that kingdom was. 
There never has been for man but one dispensation, 
and that has been the dispensation of God's ^//-embracing 
love. The Christian, the Mosaic, the antediluvian have 
been but phases of this one fact — God in Christ recon- 
ciling the world to Himself. We have all these phases, 
because we have God's love before them all and in them 
all. They are all mercy, in rich and constant unfolding. 
They are all love, lifting man out of darkness into light, 
out of the power of Satan unto God. The whole of 
this plan is connected with Christ. Ask what thing 
runs through all time, through all human existence. 
You can mention nothing but this one fact — Christ. 
Repentance, leaving behind that which is of us. Right- 
eousness, living in that which is glorious. Laws, sciences, 
arts, all things have had beginnings, but Christ is before 
them all, and, to-day, is a grander fact than all. And 
all these things which have had beginnings are only parts 
of, developments of this, which was before them all — the 
love and riches of our Father. They are only steps 
toward that grand consummation which God has as the 
object of all things that are. Strike out this plan of 
God, and you strike out all that can inspire man — you 
have no object in a universe at all — all is chance — the 
victim of a helpless fate. But, not only does Christ 
cover time, He covers the race. Abraham saw it; Isaiah 
saw it, and tried to make his people see it; Zacharias 



BAPTISM. 



171 



saw it. " Thou, child, shalt be the prophet of the Highest, 
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare 
His ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people, 
by the remission of their sins, whereby" — i. e., by this 
remission — I know not how, through the tender mercy — ■ 
remission through this Christ — " the dawn from on high 
hath visited us, to dispel our darkness and show us how 
to walk to perfection and peace." Visited us! Visited 
tuhom? 'His people!" Who are His people? This 
handful of Jews? Hath our Father, then, forgotten you 
and me? Is His family so large that some of His children 
must be left out in the cold ? " His people ! " — only you 
and me enclosed in something that we call a church? 
Nay — the Scriptures deny it. The instincts of our 
being deny it. Jesus tasted death for every man. Sat 
three and thirty years here with the dead, that He might 
show us the life everlasting! He took away the sins 
of the whole world. This is the Gospel. This is good 
news.. Sinner, you are redeemed. human race! you 
are forgiven and are taken up into the embrace of 
paternal love. We do not seem to believe this. We 
tell men they are condemned. Condemned by whom? 
By God? Never! We are poor, we are blind, we are 
wicked, but the tender mercy from on high hath visited 
us, to give us light, to guide our feet into the way of 
peace, to be a shepherd going before His sheep, the 
whole flock. That is the news ; that is the glad tidings. 
Suppose you will not go; suppose you sit and mope in 
your darkness, love the darkness rather than light; will 
God curse you for it? Nay, is not that curse enough 
in itself? So far from adding anything to you, the great 
Father-heart will beat in deeper sympathy for you than 
any heart. Is it not after the nature of God that He 



172 



SERMONS. 



should? Is it not after the love of Christ? Is it not 
in the Scripture? Is it not down in your heart the 
very thing that you want? You may be weak and blind 
and good for nothing, but that is the very thing. Jesus 
is come because you are weak and blind and good for 
nothing. That is the object God hath in creation, and 
then in redemption. The work of Christ is but the 
■ counterpart of the creation itself, to bring this world 
to a moral as well as a physical perfection. Then will 
God's work be done, the kingdom set up. Suppose you 
do hear the Saviour's voice; suppose you repent — -turn 
from your darkness, enter into this covenant of life, 
rejoice that no sin is laid to your charge — and then go 
out for all the knowledge and virtue and glory that God 
desires in His children, that is becoming to a child of God; 
suppose you see the true glory and long for that, and 
can follow Christ in all He was, to attain it; then you 
are in His church. No matter where you are born, no 
matter where you are, God can give you his Spirit. If 
you have that, you are baptised, you are in the church. 
You may come and say so, in some outward act, but if 
you do not or can not you are born again. Suppose that, 
seeing this and longing to be like Christ, the one 
sure pattern of a child of God, you go out to do what 
you can, to tell men of the way of salvation, to bring 
men to Jesus- — the Lamb of God, to turn human feet 
into the way of repentance— into the way of grace and 
virtue— you can, not only be in the church, but a prophet 
of the highest — a king and a priest unto God. There- 
unto are you called, to rejoice yourself and to teach 
others to rejoice. The light you have is commission 
enough for you — up to your degree — that is all any man 
can have. Nobody commissioned John the Baptist. 



BAPTISM. 



173 



If you know more than I do — if you can see into divine 
things further than I can, you can be a better minister 
of God than I can. I ought to sit at your feet and not 
you to sit at mine. This is what we want — a church 
alive — to go and tell men a Gospel, a good news, 
not that they are lost, but that they are saved— not to 
come and shut themselves up in our shell, but to go and 
look into God's comprehensive love — not to stay where 
they are in darkness, in shadows, in earthly and carnal 
things, but to be baptized with the spirit of meekness 
and* mercy, and purity of heart; with the spirit that 
hungers and thirsts after righteousness ; with the spirit 
of self-sacrifice, of self-consecration to everything good, 
because it leads to God. That is what the church is 
for, not to claim that they are in the church, but to go and 
tell all men they are in the church, unless by their own 
act they cut themselves off, to go out and give knowl- 
edge of salvation to His people, by the remission of 
their sins — not of a salvation that is to be created, but 
to give knowledge of the salvation that is — to tell the 
poor hireling and prodigal, of the estate, the heritage 
their Father hath left them. 

The practical question I would put to you to-day, 
out of these words of the rejoicing Zacharias — -out of 
the circumcision scene of the infant John, is : are you 
baptized ? are you in the church ? It is a question 
becoming the Advent season, because that God who 
never forgot His covenant, has not yet forgotten it. He 
came as He promised, and He will come again as He has 
promised. We say He is coming to judgment. So He 
is — coming to ask you the question, have you been lifted 
out of darkness into light, out of your poor, sordid, 
earthly nature, into high, divine, spiritual nature ? Are 



174 



SERMONS. 



your feet in the way of peace, that way which leads up 
to great moral glory, to^high knowledge, to the regions 
of that condition which alone fits for dwelling in a per- 
fected society ? Coming to ask us how much we have 
believed, if only enough to shut ourselves up in hope 
and privilege, or enough to go and tell all men the 
blessed news ? coming to say, if we have been wise, 
enter into the joy of thy Lord. If not, fall into the 
outer darkness. Can you contemplate the question? 
Are you baptized ? are you in the church ? Can any of 
you look upon that Saviour as He stands revealed t© us 
in God's word, and say you do not wish to have part 
and lot in Him ? that you have no hope based upon His 
promises ? Do not say that He is as much a Saviour 
for you as for me. He would have you say down in 
your hearts — I do love him, not enough, but I will try 
to love him more — whether anybody knows it or not, I 
will try to walk by the precepts of Jesus, by faith that 
is in His love. I will try for a share with His true 
people here, because I desire to be with his true people 
forever. Some of you say, " Yes, I have been baptized; 
I am in the church ; I have been bathed at the font ; 
I have been at the communion." But, beloved, is that 
all. What saith the life ? What breathes in every day ? 
in every belonging ? Have we the spirit of Christ? 
Are we righteous before God, and blameless ? are our 
children consecrated in faith and hope, and prayer, to 
the service of God in the service of their fellow-men? 
to the service of God in the service of wisdom, truth, 
virtue, purity, and all goodness ? Do we show them 
that our feet are within the kingdom, and that our great 
hope is, when we die, theirs may continue there, and 
by and by beyond all trials and crosses, come to be in 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 



175 



the higher kingdom with us and with Christ forever? 
Is our calling, one in which we are serving God ? one 
that is helping on that day God designs for all men — 
the day of peace, the day in which all that is good shall 
reign in man, in which there shall be no more want, 
and no more woe, and never again any more death? 

Brethren, if this be so, come to-day and let us celebrate 
together this blessed sacrament. Let us draw near by 
faith, thanking God for the unspeakable love which sent 
that Saviour to be the dayspring from on High — to lead 
us up to the full-orbed glory of the high and eternal 
day. Let all come "who are religiously and devoutly 
disposed." Let all come and say I believe in Him who 
died for me and gave His life a ransom for all. 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 

Hebrews 4: 14, 16. — Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest that 
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profes- 
sion. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin. Let us. therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that 
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

In this epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul pro- 
claims Christ to the Jews, through the medium of their 
own Mosaic economy. He holds up the Messiah, and 
then says, here is what all the ages under the old coven- 
ant have been promising and producing. If certainly 
you are truly Jews, so much the more certainly ought 
you to be truly Christians. That the Jews did not see 
the responsiveness, the deep fulfillment in Christ of all 
that was in Moses, is very surprising, for truly wonder- 



176 



SERMONS. 



ful was that whole system, in that it should be capable 
of such a counterpart — so wonderful, nothing but God's 
power could have suggested it antecedently, nothing but 
God's power could have fulfilled it subsequently. It 
was not in human power to frame a system capable of 
a counterpart in one man, or if it were, it was not in 
human power to produce the one man who should be 
that counterpart. If they believed the Mosaic dispen- 
sation came from God, more religiously ought they to 
believe Christ came from God, for in all respects He 
fulfilled the Scriptures. 

One very prominent feature in that Mosaic system 
was the High Priest. There was but one at a time. 
It was his office and service which qualified Israel for 
divine worship, for admission to the privileges of the 
covenant. He made the great atonement, entering in 
once a year, and he alone, to the Holy of Holies, to 
intercede for his people. Through Him and His inter- 
cession the people had access to the great God — were 
reconciled to their offended maker. Yet He was no 
priest. He could offer no sacrifice. He could make no 
atonement. The blood of bulls and goats could avail 
nothing. He was but a man. His Holy of Holies was 
but another spot of this one common earth. There 
never was but one priest. Never can be but one. 
There never was but one sacrifice and atonement. All 
the high priests that ever were, all put together, were 
only one long shadow, one continued type. All the 
sacrifices and atonements were not sacrifices and atone- 
ments, but all together only pledges of a sacrifice and 
atonement— the one eternal sacrifice and atonement. 
Jesus Christ was High Priest, and sacrifice and atone- 
ment — -was then, is now, the one mediator between God 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 



177 



and man. In the fullness of time the one High Priest 
offered Himself a ransom for many. As compared with 
all God's children, Israel was but the small dust of the 
balance. They for whom Christ offered atonement were 
the human race. Once for all and for ever, "through 
Him we have access unto the Father." "We have bold- 
ness and access with confidence." "'We have a great High 
Priest which is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son 
of God." 

When Paul wrote that, it had not been long since 
Jesus had gone up — when you open these Scriptures 
and read the record of the early church, read these epistles 
of the Apostles, you have a proof of all they assert in 
their manner of asserting it. To them the life and 
words of Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrection and 
ascension, were not things that might possibly have 
been. They were things that really were. The early 
believers lived in the presence of them. All was as 
vivid before them as to us is the yesterday's death-bed 
scene of our dearest friend. The person, the last words, 
we hear them and see them still. It does not seem 
possible to forget them. Their thoughts were not wholly 
up in heaven, but He was still here amid scenes His 
presence had consecrated and hallowed. When their 
thoughts were in heaven they were with Him, as He 
had been. He who had gone into heaven was He who 
had walked the earth, had hungered and thirsted, had 
contended with human contradictions, had carried human 
burdens, had fed the hungry and cured the sick, and 
comforted the weary and ignorant. He was the Son of 
God, but He was Jesus. He was the ??za?f*Christ Jesus, 
accessible to the humblest, to whom, even in the crowd, 
the obscurest and neediest could come and touch Him 



178 SERMONS. 

and be healed, or, at a feast, whose feet even a Magde- 
lene could bathe in penitent tears. He who had gone 
was He who had come, but it was not so much that, as 
it was He who had been here — his strong manhood sym- 
pathising with this weak manhood — a sinless humanity 
helping us to become sinless. He was a compassionate 
High Priest. He had been tried in all respects as we 
are — He, without sin, wearing all the consequences of 
sin, that He might rescue us sinners. 

It is this idea that penetrates the Apostle, the idea of 
the love of God for us, of His perfect sympathy with 
us. Man doth not yet fully understand it. The ten- 
dency of all human thought in contemplating God has 
been to remove Him, in place and Spirit, infinitely from 
man. Fallen human nature has invested the Deity with 
a being out of its own being, clothed God in an impossi- 
bility, and that impossibility born of gloom and dark- 
ness. It is the nature of ignorance and weakness so to 
invest all being, to call upon its fears, to complicate, till 
when the truth dawns, its simplicity is as astonishing 
as the truth itself. Human theories of the creation of 
the world, of its form and structure after it was created— 
theories to explain natural phenomena before science, 
true science, arose — all possess a marvellousness which 
is unnatural, except as it was natural for human ignor- 
ance to produce it. No two parts of man's marvellous 
schemes coincided. An eclipse of sun or moon would 
produce a paroxysm of fear. A pestilence, in which 
God pitied them more than they pitied each other, would 
overwhelm them with the dread of God's anger. That 
sublime order" in the universe which produced an eclipse 
should have begotten only emotions of admiration. 
That energy, stimulated by a pestilence to acts of great 



THE SYMPAPHY OF OUR LORD. 



179 



superstition, -would have better pleased God in acts of 
wisdom for preventing the causes which produced the 
pestilence. Ignorance and fear were twin sisters. Like 
two blind fortune-tellers, they not only robbed man of 
the little good he had, but drove him further away from 
the one good he wanted. Death is in all ignorance, but 
worst death of all in ignorance of God. It makes Him — 
the very thing we want the most — the thing we least 
desire; and the thing we do desire, the very thing we 
ought not to have. 

With profoundest truth did Jesus Christ say in that 
prayer for all humanity — "This is life eternal that they 
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent." And there are two senses in 
which a thing may be said to be known. We know a 
thing when we know all there is about it — its nature, 
its power, its office ; but nothing outside of man's device 
by man can be so known, for in an infinite universe 
every integral part has infinite relations. But a thing 
may be said to be known when what we know of it is a real 
knowledge, or the knowledge of it, so far as it goes, is 
of the reality. In this sense this new world was known 
when. Columbus discovered it. Otherwise it is not yet 
known. We know more of it than Columbus did, and 
are going on to know it. But there are things in it, and 
destinies wrapt up in it for man, which he can know 
only as experiences unfold. The circulation of the 
blood was known when Harvey discovered it, but we 
do not yet know all there is about the circulation of the 
blood. Many blessings sprung into being for man with 
that discovery, but many more blessings are in store 
for us yet, as facts respecting it which are still latent 
shall be revealed. 



180 



SERMONS. 



We can never know all there is of God. The Arch- 
angels above know not all.- An eternity of eternities 
from now, there will be something still for them to learn. 
But what joy transcendent, what glory, what exaltation 
to know Him as they know Him. And what life, what 
blessedness to know Him at all. To find Him is to find 
life ; it is to be brought out of darkness into light — 
out of the power of Satan unto the true God. To find 
Him is to find that for which there is a supreme craving 
in these natures- — that which was made to be filled with 
Him— that for which He exists. 'To find Him is to 
find love- — the moving spirit of the universe — that which 
alone can explain all being, its brightness or its darkness — 
moral greatness shining in its majesty, or moral eclipse 
producing awe in its mysterious gloom. 

God is love. The element of love implies precisely 
this sympathy. Love is not simply benevolence, or well- 
wishing — not simply a general good nature. Love is 
attachment, yearning toward an object. That object 
must be capable of responsiveness, of corresponding 
sympathy. When there is such correspondence, such per- 
fect sympathy, is there peace, joy passing understanding, 
joy felt. Doors to the heart are opened. Avenues to 
bliss are discovered. Both sides are blessed. Where 
there is not a responsiveness- — where the object cannot 
respond, there is not love. There may be attachment, 
but that attachment fills not the soul. Man cannot love 
a flower, or a star, or an idea. He may like a flower, or 
a star, or an idea. When we apply the word love to 
such attachment, we misapply it. The nature of God 
implies this highest — this perfect love for His creatures 
whom He has made capable of response. Nay, his whole 
being could not be exercised without such love. His 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 



181 



moral creatures are the only fitting objects of such love. 
While he likes all being because it is very good, He 
loves only his moral beings. They are the proper objects 
of His love. He is the proper, natural object of their 
love. They are made to love, to trust, to depend. His 
love for us is a protecting, defending, strengthening 
love. Our love for Him should be a depending, hoping, 
consulting love, glorying in His glory — longing for per- 
fect assimilation and union. Only in relying upon a 
proper object does our being find relief, development. 
Only in relying upon God is our moral nature safe. It 
is life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ whom He 
hath sent. 

This perfect sympathy with man — this unbounded 
love for us, is the burden of the Gospel, the message of 
Christ, God always loves, always has loved, always will 
love. He hates nothing that He has made, never can 
hate at all, for hatred is weakness, and for that reason, 
never can be in the Deity. Not so however with grief 
and pity. Grief and pity are in their very nature divine. 
The richer the nature the more deeply sympathetic- 
more truly and closely responsive, as I have said, is part 
and parcel of the very idea of God. The holier the 
nature the more it can endure, the more it can sacrifice, 
and in all endurance and sacrifice discover the richness 
of its being, and find enjoyment in its work. It seems 
contradictory, but nevertheless it is fact, and so true is 
it we cannot even conceive a truly noble nature destitute 
of such an element. So true is it we cannot conceive 
of a God, a true God, in whom it is wanting. When 
Lucifer fell, the emotions in the divine breast were not 
those of anger. His fall in one sense affected not Jehovah. 
There was no war, as Milton suggests. The lamb that 



182 



SERMONS. 



leaves the fold goes into the thickets. All the war there 
is, is not with the shepherd, but with the elements. 
Wherein you are in error, or malice, or ignorance, you 
may grieve the Holy Ghost, but only because you are 
destroying yourself. How far Satan had advanced in 
moral being we do not know, but it could not have been 
very far, for then he had not fallen. When he fell the 
great All-Father did not hate him, hurled no thunder- 
bolt after him, but sought his return as a shepherd seeks 
his stray lamb — pitied him as a living father pitieth his 
erring child. What means were devised for his rescue 
we do not know ; but that God did not seek him is not 
to be believed. 

When Adam fell, there was the great Father pitying 
him. God hurled no thunderbolt after him. The mis- 
fortunes that overtook him, the curses that came upon 
him, were the scratches of the thorns to which he had 
gone. He knew not the road back again. Darkness 
struck terror into him and turned the divine laws, of 
which till then he was ignorant, into flaming cherubim, 
keeping him in the darkness he had sought. There they 
are to this clay, to all who are in that darkness. But 
God commenced to seek, commenced to bring back that 
which was lost. He commenced out of His pitying love, 
out of this very nature we have been considering. He 
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son 
to seek and save that which was lost. He looked upon 
sin in sorrow, as an unspeakable misfortune, as a mother 
would look upon her boy if she should find him in the 
gutter, stript and wounded, and drugged and dying. 
Disobedience and ingratitude and dissipation might have 
brought him there, but she would be willing to die to 
bring him back. She could go there into that gutter. 



» 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 183 

She could bear his insults and assaults, and while he 
smote her, pillow his head upon her bosom, if only she 
could reclaim him. Be the sons at home many or few, 
be they never so wise and never so dutiful, she could 
leave them and seek this one, because he of them all 
needed her love — because his misfortune was great, his 
humiliation deep. She could rest not till he were made 
whole as the rest, or till his doom were become irrevo- 
cable. 

It is the office of love so to. seek, so to act. The 
incarnation of Christ grew out of the love of Gocl. So 
far from imagining that God could not come to a wicked 
world, we have the cause of His coming in the very 
fact that it was wicked. So far from imagining that 
God could not suffer, we could have no true conception 
of God, of true divine glorified Godhead, if He had 
not suffered. While we were sinners, and because we 
were sinners Christ died for us, and He died for us 
because He was Gocl. It is not the sin that grieves 
Him, the particular act or condition. It is the ingrati- 
tude, the rejection of his love, the insensibility to His 
sympathy, the absence of peace, and knowledge, and 
wisdom in your heart, the unrest and woe that fill your 
being, the isolation and desolation that are there. There 
is music and dancing and joy in your Father's home, 
and He wants you there, not for His sake, but for your 
sake, because you are His child, and He wants you to 
be peaceful and happy. 

And all of us in His sight are alike. All we, like 
sheep, have gone astray. Even the best of us, if there 
is any best, are in some error and some sin, and much 
suffering. Not one of us can go to heaven because we 
are fit to go there. Every one of us if we go at all shall 



184 



SERMONS. 



have to leave our tattered righteousness outside and put 
on the sandals and robes which our Father shall give us. 
We cut ourselves up into saints and sinners, but oh, I 
think God does not cut us up so at all. All of us are 
sinners, and yet all His children ; and he loves us out 
of the fountains of His perfect love. We cut ourselves 
up into church and world, but oh, whether church or 
world, God in the nature of things finds most delight in 
those who most love Him. 

Now I think we cannot know God at all until we know 
that He is this love. And though it is not yet to know 
all there is of God, it is truly, so far as it goes, to know 
Him, and not something our fears have created for Him. 
This is what Jesus revealed Him to be. This revelation 
of Jesus, this action of Jesus, proves that Christ were 
God. He was to every man the very thing that was 
wanted — to every man except the Scribe and Pharisee, 
who was a god to himself, and wanted not a real God. 
He was eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf, and feet 
to the lame, and rest to the weary, and life to the friend- 
less and hopeless. And so he is still. He who descended 
to this earth and brought God to us, is He who ascended 
to Heaven, and carried humanity before God. He is 
the same there now, that He was here then. He is God, 
but He is man too. I think the church, unlike Paul 
and the Apostles, ceased to realize that as they should. 
They elevated Christ's divinity 3 not to its real throne, 
but away from it, into conjecture, into mystery, born 
of human ignorance. And the poor human heart wanted 
the God-maw to feel for it — the God-maw in whose shel- 
tering and soothing arms it could nestle. Because of 
this mistake in the church itself, some men were led to 
cling to the man, Christ Jesus, and give up the Son of 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 



185 



God. Not so much wrong in what they held, as unfor- 
tunate and suffering loss in what they let go. And 
then, in the progress of time, to supply this very sym- 
pathy which only is in Christ, and in Him because He 
is God, the church, so-called, created a being to supply 
it — placed the virgin mother upon the mediatorial 
throne, and sits there to-day in mortal imagination only 
because man does not know how all they conceive to be 
in her is only in her sinless and perfect Son. It is this 
error of practically ignoring Christ's perfect manhood 
which has led to these other two errors— of a denial of 
His deity on the one hand, and of a creation to supply 
its office on the other— and it is this, too, which keeps 
them alive. We want to know that Christ is man as 
well as God — that the man Christ, Jesus is in heaven, 
sympathetic, compassionate. We have a High Priest 
passed into the heavens, touched with a feeling, of our infirm- 
ity. We do not want any other there. There is not a 
want nor a woe we have which He does not know. You 
may be under the power of Satan, feeling that there is no 
God, or that God does not care anything about you; He- 
knows what that is, and from the cross He says to you ? 
if you could only hear Him : " There is a God, and He is 
your Father, and He loves you and will be glad to have 
you draw nigh to Him." No matter what your sin is, 
how long or how far away you may have gone, " Come 
back with me ; my cross pledges you forgiveness and a 
welcome ; all I desire is to have you home." You may- 
be burdened with temptations, and heavy crosses^ and 
sorrows.' You may even have brought them upon your- 
selves, but even if you are so burdened, and even if you 
have bound that burden upon your shoulders, He is still 

24 



186 



SERMON'S. 



with you. and says, " Cast thy burden upon me ; I only 
want to get you home." He is compassionate. You may 
have some sorrow that lies close and heavy upon your 
spirit, some child that is out of the way. some thorn that 
pierces through to the very heart, some anxiety and 
care ; but if you have. He saj r s, " Look up, and set 
your heart upon me and trust me, and come home and 
rest." You may be weary and fainting, and feel as the 
Master himself under the heavy cross He could not 
carry to Calvary, but if you do. He says, " Be not afraid, 
I am with you. Though your feet be sinking and dark- 
ness be round about, my arm is outstretched. Yonder is 
thv heritage and thy resting place." Oh. brethren, 
there are times in this life when we need a sympathy 
that is real and earnest and near. Human sympathy is 
worth something — true sympathy worth much. It 
smooths our road — it casts a light across our path — it 
keeps down our fears. But there are times even before 
we reach the last stage of this dark valley, when we 
need a help that is more than human ; need a help that 
we know will not fail us, will not forsake us. And that 
help is in God, is in Christ, because He is touched with a 
feeling of our infirmities. He was tried in all points as 
we are. Human sympathy goes not fa*. Men lay 
their burdens on us. They aggravate and magnify the 
burdens we have of our own. But in our troubles 
He is not like man. He does not come and tell us do 
just the very thing we are unable to do : does not go 
with us till He finds the real fault, then reproach us 
with it. and leave us because we are at fault. He does 
not upbraid us, and so turn the fault into a double mis- 
fortune. He is there with us to comfort and strength- 
en us, if we can only look up and see Him. If He 



THE SYMPATHY OF OUR LORD. 187 

does not take us out of our sorrow, or our sorrow away 
from us, it is because our road to the Kingdom lies along 
and through that experience. There is no other road 
for us. With Christ there with us, we shall have light 
and help, and come safely to the promised rest. And 
once arrived there, what a consolation to know that Gocl 
himself is Judge. You see how perfect love casts out 
all fear. Such a God — one that knows all the weak- 
ness, all the temptation, all the fault — one that has com- 
passion, our Father. 

This is life eternal to know God, and Jesus Christ 
whom He hath sent. Brethren, begin to understand 
how He loves you, and you will begin to know Him. 
Understand how He loves you, and you will then love 
Him. As you love Him you wilj. cease to love the 
world — that which is unworthy your affections. You 
will cease to grieve Him. You will see it is not your 
sin over which He grieves, but your ingratitude — your 
insensibility — your unlikeness to Him, which makes 
you love that which He does not love. As you love 
Him, conceive Him not at an infinite remove from you, 
but present here with you the same compassionate High 
Priest, the meek and lowly Jesus, the accessible Sa- 
viour. Whether it seem so or not, as He was with us, so 
is God with us. That incarnation is God ivith us. The 
ascension is not a suspension of His presence with us, 
but the finishing touch to a perfect demonstration that 
God is never absent from us. 

" Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest that 
is passed into the heavens — Jesus, the Son of God — let 
us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High 
Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, but one that was in all respects tempted like 



188 SERMONS. 



as we are, and yet without sin. Let us therefore come 
loldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
mercy and find grace and help in time of need/ 5 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 

Romans 14 : 22. — Happy is be that condemneth not himself in that thing 
which he allow eth. 

In this Epistle to the Romans the great Apostle has 
dwelt long and forcibly upon the doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith . In these later chapters he comes to mat- 
ters of an every-day, practical nature, and these he en- 
deavors to enforce with an equal emphasis* 

Religion, like everything else God hath ordained, has 
its two sides— the inward principle and the outward 
manifestation— the abstract and the concrete — the the- 
ory and the practice— the life and the application of 
life. In us, e. g., as individuals, there are laws of nat- 
ural life, many of which are known and many unknown. 
To many of us they are nearly all unknown ; but they act 
no better in those who know them, than in those who do 
not know them — -sometimes not so well, i. e., they are 
independent of what we know, absolute and universal 
in their nature, made of God. There is great advan- 
tage, however, in the knowledge of them, provided it 
be true knowledge and not mere speculation. In our 
common physical life, by means of these laws, there is 
a part voluntary and a part involuntary. The blood 
circulates in us whether we know anything of the laws 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 189 

of circulation or not. It circulates for him who knows 
its laws no better than for him who knows nothing about 
it — sometimes not so well ; the ignorant man in stout, 
robust health, is better off than the wise man whose 
health is impaired. For the various duties and exigen- 
cies of life, the strong, ignorant man, would be more 
valuable than the weak invalid. In the emergency of 
saving a house on fire, or a man from drowning, between 
the value of the two there would be no comparison. 
Health is the object contemplated in the circulation of 
the blood— it circulates that we might be healthy and 
fitted for the duties of life. That is first, and if there 
be knowledge afterwards, it is only that the aggregate 
health be greater. If there, be schools of science, it is 
that the race be better off. That school of science by 
which the race is not better off, is a curse rather than a 
blessing— a wrecker's light, not a true beacon. 

So religion has its voluntary and its involuntary sides; 
its laws of being which give life, and the uses we make of 
those laws ; its workings independent of our knowledge, 
and its workings in combination with our knowledge. 
The doctrines of atonement and justification — rather, the 
laws of atonement and justification— are great univer- 
sal laws; eternal laws, too, made in the beginning. They 
work in all men just as in all men the pulse beats. 
They envelop the human race like the atmosphere, and 
man breathes their blessing though he thinks nothing of 
his breathing. Some men know nothing about them. 
No man knows much. Even Paul himself saw them 
through a glass darkly ; he proved his humanity in that 
he labored to explain them. We have proved our 
weakness in that we have neglected all other religious 
things for them— drawn theories out of them, instead of 



190 



SERMONS. 



spiritual life. Christ .said very little about them, and 
what He did say was more to suggest them than to ex- 
plain them. There were matters to Him weightier than 
these. His atonement would avail whether we knew 
anything about it or not. Its benefits would not be 
according to the degrees of our ignorance of it. I say 
our ignorance of it, because we cannot say our knowl- 
edge of it, for we know very little about it. He died 
for the sins of the whole world. By that death God 
hath mercy upon all, and all men have the blessings 
they have because God's mercy is universal. He who 
sees enough of God to walk after Him— and God hath 
nowhere left Himself without witness — is justified in 
the faith that walks; in a certain sense, ly the .faith 
that walks. The walking is the very object for which 
God ordained atonement and justification. Not that 
they are not to be understood by us, if we can under- 
stand them, but that the understanding of them is not 
the prime work of our probation. Into them the angels 
desire to look. They yet have to endeavor to under- 
stand them. The work of man is to attain to righteous- 
ness, to practice holiness, by the strength derived from 
atonement and justification, whether he knows anything 
of them or not, to become like God — to have of the at- 
tributes of God — to be filled with virtue — holy as He 
is holy, perfect as He is perfect. That will bring peace, 
rest, all life to this dying world. That is what God 
wants us to have. The religious knowledge which con- 
duces not to that, is worse than none. He who has, or 
claims to have, the knowledge of divine things, and yet 
is without the virtues and graces that are in God, and 
which are revealed to us by Christ in making the atone- 
ment, is also a wrecker's light and not a beacon — he 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 



191 



condeinneth himself in the thing he alloweth, the thing 
he claims, the thing he has chosen to represent. 

It has been conceived by some that there is an in- 
consistency in St. Paul. Sometimes he tells us it is 
faith that saves us and then he denounces works. And 
then again he points out works for us to walk in, as if 
our whole salvation depended on them, bidding us indeed 
to work out our salvation ; and another Apostle says : 
"You see how that by works a man is justified and 
not by faith only." But there is no inconsistency here 
to anybody that is wise. We have not considered what 
works they are Paul denounces, and what works he com- 
mends. In every instance the works he denounces, or 
rather declares void of any saving efficacy, are so-called 
religious works ; works that men do to make religion — 
not works God hath ordained into which we are to put 
religion. In every case the works he commends are 
those of justice, truth and love, demanded in the com- 
mon every-day life of man ; demanded by this provi- 
dence of God. The one thing Paul had to resist, in his 
time, outside of absolute wickedness, was Judaism. 
That had made religion consist in washings, ordinances, 
religious observances, just as in our time, to many per- 
sons, religion consists in baptism, joining the church, 
going to church, observing days, and seasons, and 
human doctrines. All that, then, since and now, so far 
from being religion, is only superstition. The more of it 
a man has the worse off he is. The more men there 
are that have it, the worse off the race is. Wherever 
it prevails, it leads to, it begets pride, bigotry. It pre- 
vents knowledge, liberality, truth, wisdom. It causes 
blindness and allows men to indulge envy, hatred, malice, 
and all uncharitableness, in the very name of religion. 



192 



SERMONS. 



If it take possession of a whole people, it uncivilizes, 
degrades, and prostrates that people. It exalts men in 
their own opinion, sets them to claiming things which 
God has reserved to Himself. It assumes to hold the 
keys of the kingdom of God, and, according to its own 
caprices, opens or closes the everlasting doors. It 
causes us to make other men slaves to us as we are 
slaves to it, till one man lords it over his fellow-men, 
both alike injured and degraded. Vices, even crimes, 
grow out of it, till it can be perceived by instinct of the 
race, that they who set up to be ministers of God, pro- 
fessors of religion, are enemies of God and at heart un- 
believers. It makes men condemn themselves by the 
very claims they set up. If they alone are God's chil- 
dren, how is it that, " nearer the church the further 
from God." If they are the dispensers of heavenly 
blessing, how is it that when they rule, there is so little 
blessing of any sort ? You see how the claim reacts in 
condemnation. Claiming to have, demands an action 
corresponding to the claim. He who has no religious 
profession whatever, but has mercy, judgment, wisdom— 
who has the graces and virtues contemplated in relig- 
ion—he who deals justly with his neighbor, tolerates 
his neighbor's opinions, respects his rights, walks hum- 
bly and usefully, giving himself for the common good, 
that it is to be religious. That man has faith ; he sees 
the eternal principles of things, and walks in the light 
of those principles. That is faith. The works of the 
man are evidence of the faith in him ; he is justified by 
his faith, albeit he never heard or thought of justifica- 
tion by faith. In whatever nation he might be, his 
fearing God and doing righteousness makes him accepted 
of God. That is all religion can do. Christ's atone- 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 193 



merit avails for him. In him God is delighted. He 
assumes nothing, so is not self-condemned in anything. 
Men listen to him and hear him gladly. They look at 
him and feel he is a child of God. Such men the world 
wants — -such men Christ showed us how to be — such 
men Paul urges all to whom he wrote to become. The 
works of such men Paul commends. 

In this light, the two Scriptures appointed by our 
church for our edification to-day— the 2d Lesson and 
• the Gospel for this morning, the 23d of Matthew and 
the Parable of the Good Samaritan— are peculiarly and 
solemnly impressive. Indeed, we might add the 1st Les- 
son as well, where Moses says, " All the judgments and 
statutes which I command thee this day shall you ob- 
serve to do. that it may be well .with thee and thy 
children after thee." In the doing there was safety. 
But though we might mention this, in these other Scrip- 
tures there is greater than Moses, and therefore a higher 
authority. The one establishes the other ; God has not 
changed his true law. 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan was occasioned 
by the coming of a certain Lawyer to Christ asking 
" What he must do to be saved." The word Lawyer there 
means one of those men who were keepers of the law, 
expounders of the Jewish system— a teacher in Israel, 
a professor of religion. The Saviour said : u Thou 
hast the law. How readest thou." He replied : " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy 
neighbor as thyself." "Very well," said Christ, "do that 
and thou shalt live." The law was very plain — how 
was it possible to misunderstand it? But these doctors^ 
for we might as well call them " doctors " as lawyers — 
doctors of divinity, so-called— these doctors had skilled 

25 



194 



SERMONS. 



their minds in finding, ways of escape from the law. 
They had been in the habit of twisting the plain word 
to suit their theories, till, like the boy who from imita- 
ting a stutterer, becomes unable to speak plainly, they 
became unable to perceive the word of God in its plain- 
ness. Like us they interpreted the Bible in the light 
of their theories, and not their theories in the light of 
the Bible. This man might have been sincere in com- 
ing to Christ with that question, but the probability 
is he wanted to make capital for his church party out 
of Christ's answer. He came to the Master as men 
come to us sometimes. They ask our opinion, but their 
desire is that we should endorse their opinion. They 
do not care for ours. They want to go away and say, 
not what you think, hut that you think as they do. 
The Master ^aid : " You know the law very well, do 
that and you shall be saved." " Yes," said the man, " but 
I clo not know who my neighbor is." a Very well," 
said Christ, " I will tell you. A certain man, no mat- 
ter who he was or what he was, fell into misfortune. 
A priest, one of your sect, believing just as you do, 
swelling with self-importance, with a brain finely de- 
veloped in argument, with multitudes of people who 
received their law from him, who sat at his feet and 
dreamed of heaven — he looked upon that man, but he 
had no heart; he did not love anybody as himself ; he 
did not believe in his own doctrine; he casta patronizing 
glance upon him, a kind of conventional pity, and w T ent 
by on the other side. Another man came along, a man of 
jom party, too. Though not quite so high an ecclesi- 
astic as the first, his work was possibly more directly to 
look out for just such cases. Possibly, if he touched 
that man he would not be able to keep the Passover on 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 



195 



the Sabbath; he would b? in the strange position of 
be'ng unclean from having kept God's law — a law that 
Moses never made and that God never made — a thing 
that was no law at all. but a mere ipse dixit of unright- 
eousness would make the re.il law of none effect. His 
traditions had made void the law ; lie was blind, think- 
ing he alone could see ; he passed by on the other side. 
But accidentally, in the ordinary providence of God, 
there came along a man who made no particular relig- 
ious profession — a man whom you and the church 
thought had not any religion whatever — a man excluded 
by your customs from the privileges, whatever they 
were, of God's children as you understand God's chil- 
dren; but a man with a heart, a man full of real sym- 
pathy and compassion, a man who viewed a brother in 
every man. and felt himself a neighbor to every man ; 
a man who would be like God. having pity and love, as 
God hath for us all : he went to him and administered to 
his necessities — not only that, he provided for his future, 
till he should be able to take care of himself. Which 
of all these, was neighbor to the unfortunate ? Which 
of all these, kept God's commandment? Which of all 
these, was nearest to the kingdom of peace and love ? 
Which one had real religion ?" Conviction in the law- 
yer's heart replied : - He that had pity on him." " Well 
then." said the Saviour, "go and do thou likewise :" 
"so keep God's commandments and thou shalt be saved." 
" In so keeping them you will show that you are a saved 
man." What a word of encouragement that was to us 
mortals striving to do our Father's will ! What a hope 
spreads out from it that multitudes are trying to do 
God's will, who do not belong to our sect, who do not 
believe in our interpretation, or misinterpretation of the 



196 



SERMONS. 



written law — the written law as we have twisted it, till 
it has become void. But, oh ! what a rebuke, then, is 
there for us, that this world should be so badly off, and 
we religious people, instead of being religious, are only 
questioning each other's creeds, looking, not at life, but 
at the accidents of life, at what we eat and drink and 
wear. Anxious, not that all souls should worship God, 
but only that all may pretend to worship Him as we do. 
Building not ourselves in holiness, but acting the spy 
upon our brother. We do not know what that man said 
or did, consequent upon that interview with Christ. He 
might have been very angry with Christ, having been 
foiled in his attempt to pledge Christ to his opinions. 
Possibly, he thought Christ was a very strange man- 
yes, possibly, worse than that, he thought Christ was 
undermining the law and the prophets by such strange 
language— down in his heart, looked upon Him hence- 
forth as an enemv of the church, and so turned what 
might have made for his peace, into a savor of death 
unto death to his souL 

In the light of this, turn to the twenty-third of Mat- 
thew :• — "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; 
what they bid you, that observe and do, but do not ye 
after their works.' 7 That is to say, " they have the 
law; that law is very plain; be sure you do it ; only 
beware of their traditions and customs ; they make void 
the law ; pride has set them up. So far from their be- 
ing like God, they are diametrically opposed to God. 
Pride is Satan — self is enmity with God. Claiming to 
be God's children, they are children of darkness— claim- 
ing to be dispensers of blessing, +hey are dispensers of 
cursing. They want to be first and to make a show in 
this vain world, to outglitter vanity itself. They love 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 197 

uppermost rooms at feasts and chief seats in the syna- 
gogues, and to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi." " But." 
— but what? " But be not ye called Rabbi. . It shall 
not be so among you. One is your Master, even Christ." 
He said this to the multitudes as well as to the disciples, 
"All ye are brethren," one no wiser than the other, and 
one no more loved of God than the other. " Call no 
man your father upon earth, one is your Father which 
is in heaven." Did Christ foresee that a great father- 
hood was to be claimed — a monstrous papacy set up ? 
"Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, 
even Christ." Did the great Teacher foresee how we 
would run into the same channels as the Jews? that the 
Pharisaic mantle would descend upon us? Have we 
obeyed Him? Did not He warn us against D. D.'s and 
L. L. D.'s and D. C. L.'s, and the whole list of honors 
and titles which have been superlatively and exclusively 
attached to the church? How much of a lump this 
humanity is — pride on the one hand, and honors on the 
other ; poor human pride and poor paltry honors ; hon- 
ors to work upon pride ; tinsels that wrought upon am- 
bition, ate the vitality out of the old church,- — and glit- 
tering tinsels, in direct and flagrant disobedience of the 
Saviour, have eaten vitality out of the new church. 
Measured by this rule, which of us all has any Apostolic 
succession? Is not* he happy indeed who condemns not 
himself in that which he alloweth ? The practice of us 
Christians has made the world suspicious. No man 
can do anything any longer but even the church itself 
takes the alarm. He must of necessity have some end 
of his own, till the vehicle God set up to carry men to 
heaven ? itself lies broken and piled across the road. He 
who undertakes with any zeal to do any good to his 



198 SERMONS. 

fellow-men, must in our estimation have some selfish 
end — why ? Because out of our hearts we judge of 
others. In looking upon the Pharisees, the Saviour said: 
" Woe unto you, hypocrites !" An hypocrite is one who 
is deceived as much as one who deceives others. " Woe 
unto you." Some people have conceived that Christ 
was angry when He pronounced these words, but no wise 
man ever had that conception. Woe was unto them — 
dark, bitter, frightful woe. Woe was unto the people, 
that they had these guides and followed them; and woe 
was unto the guides, that they were blind. They de- 
nounced the wicked and they were wicked. They shut 
God's kingdom, and thereby asserted they thought it 
ought to be shut. They claimed to be the church and 
God asked of them souls; they had none to present Him, 
and thereby sealed their condemnation. If He were 
their Father where was His honor, and if they were sal- 
vation where were the saved? They condemned them- 
selves in that which they allowed. Can we come to 
judgment with our claims ? The Saviour was not angry. 
His closing words — " 0, Jerusalem, Jerusalem," make 
me think that He wept. Their work was to make pros- 
elytes — to build up Sectarianism — build great walls 
through this brotherhood — to explain away the law — to 
evade the truth — to put ceremony for sincerity and ap- 
pearance for reality. Every step they took sunk them 
deeper into death. Every tenet they held was poison 
for all that received it, and the more deadly for those 
who most implicitly believed. They were a generation 
of vipers, moral spiritual serpents, offspring of the old 
enemy, children of the real Satan. First once in their 
own estimation, and chief once in the world's esteem, 
where are they to-day ? Do no echoes break across the 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. 



199 



ages? Are there no glimpses of the shadows that cur- 
tain the world of the lost? 

Brethren, all Scripture is given for our instruction. 
Where do we stand to-day, in view of the thoughts 
which have been expressed ? There is a wonderful 
parallel between our times and those of the Saviour — a 
wonderful contrast between religion and the church. 
This is a fearful subject for me. I am a teacher in Is- 
rael, and what am I teaching? Have I taught you a 
theory of my own to-day, and then tried to get Christ 
to endorse it? or. have I left all theory, and taught you 
out of the words of the Saviour? Is the doctrine I have 
taught you mine or the Master's? in whom centereth 
all wisdom and whose word is the truth ? The respon- 
sibility of preaching is fearful. I , would that I could 
lay it down. It appears not to be possible. This is a 
fearful subject for you. We say we believe in a judg- 
ment — in a day when Chris 1 shall come to judge us. 
** We believe that Thou shalt come to be our judge." 
We say we believe. 

By our words, our deeds, our lives we are to be 
judged. We claim to be God\s church. Can we go 
before God with that claim. Are you willing to have 
the souls that are ignorant and dead — for whom nobody 
is striving — laid all to your charge ? You go down to 
the dock, and you will find a steamer there decked in 
gay colors, and a scene enlivened by voluptuous music. 
You find a jubilant party on a holiday excursion. You 
exclaim against the desecration of the Sabbath, but you 
follow along in the throng that goes home from the 
church, and you will hear the sermon denounced and 
the preacher sneered at. You will hear yourself say 
things which will chill some seeking heart, some Sa- 



200 



SERMONS. 



maritan soul, and destroy much good. If that is so, who 
has done most to break down the Sabbath? You look 
out upon the world and you see hundreds of boys and 
girls who have nobody to tell them of God. You are 
the church. You have the law and the prophets. You 
have Christ and the riches and blessings of the atone- 
ment, but you have nothing to do for them, and they 
make the men and women that go upon Sunday excur- 
sions. You look around upon the community saddened 
by vice and cursed by crime. Y T ou are compelled to 
contemplate poverty and wretchedness, vanity and 
worldliness, folly and fashion, greed and selfishness. 
You are the Church followers of Him whose body was 
broken, whose life was crushed for human good — set- 
ting us an example that true riches was in having some- 
thing to give and true greatness in living to impart. 
You go out to-morrow — your home belongings — your 
personal attire — your vocation or want of vocation — 
your elbowing, and grudging, and uncharity — all pro- 
claim that the laws which govern you do not come out of 
the Bible, nor from Christ, but out of the world and from 
the depths of a heart that is still carnal. So all the 
way through. If you are the master of a ship — what 
of the ship ? If you are a ruler, what of the people ? 
If you are the fathers of the city, what of the city ? 
If you are high in social position — do } r ou rejoice that 
you are high or that others are low ? Where is the evi- 
dence ? Do your exertions to lift others testify to your 
thankfulness that you yourself are lifted? There is the 
pit — there is thy poor brother humanity in it. What 
are we Priest and Levite doing to get him out ? Oh, 
brethren, the airs we put on along this world, in the 
street, in our homes, here in the church, are all to 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 



201 



come to us before that bar of God above. Verily, true 
being is no mystery, but it is fearfully solemn. It sifts 
out the truly rich and the* truly great to dwell with 
'God, and heaven is with him because there are the rich 
and the great. And do you not see the whole object of 
the Gospel — that it is to make you rich and great, wise 
and true. Do you not see what religion is — the being, 
not the pretending to be ? And do you not see the 
works in which you are to walk, if you are to have the 
evidences that you had the real being ? If any man 
should walk humbly upon earth it should be the Chris- 
tian. If any man should say, " God be merciful to me 
a sinner," it should be he to whom so much is commit- 
ted. The humblest man the earth ever saw was Jesus 
Christ, and he was humblest because he was highest. 
May we all be like him, rich in all true riches. Let 
others claim the honors and offices and titles, if they 
please, but in the great judgment may God not bring our 
own assumptions as the standard by which we are to 
stand or fall. Happy then will he be who condemneth 
not himself in that thing which he alloweth. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 

James 2 : 24. — Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not 
by faith only. 

When the Apostles went out to preach the Gospel, 
Christ was the burden of all they proclaimed. They 
rehearsed the simple story of the incarnation, and called 
upon men to renounce their sins and come to God 
through the Redeemer. They did not take a text of 

26 



202 



SERMONS. 



Scripture, as we do, and expound that. They only 
wove the old Scriptures into the fabric of their story, as 
they would prove, that, what they preached, should not 
be considered strange, since it was only that which had* 
been, throughout the ages, proclaimed. 

As they preached and the influence of the Gospel ex- 
tended, others began to preach. New thoughts began 
to struggle into life, and new expressions were framed 
in which to clothe the thoughts. JS T o thought being 
precisely the same in any two minds, and no expression 
being exactly equal to any thought, in the nature of 
things there must arise somewhat of confusion, and even, 
perhaps, somewhat of seeming contradiction. 

This confusion and contradiction did actually begin 
in the very times of the Apostles, and some of the 
Epistles, now included in the canon of our Scriptures, 
were written with special endeavor to counteract exist- 
ing difficulty. This Epistle of James doubtless had 
such a purpose in view. Men then, as since, talked of 
faith and works — then, as since, they became confused, 
and, in their confusion, strayed into error. One thing 
this Epistle was written to tell us, was, that faith without 
works is dead. The Apostle illustrates it by the life of 
Abraham, and then says : — "you see then how that by 
works a man is justified and -not by faith only." • 

There are few subjects connected with religion more 
practically important than this suggested by the text — 
few that have given rise to more discussion, and few 
that are still less distinctly understood. 

One prime difficulty in our discussions upon any sub- 
ject arises from our /^^understanding each other. We 
do not enough define positions — still less do we define 
terms. Every subject has its different aspects. No two 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 



203 



of us approach it from precisely the same angle. We 
try to express what we see, and sometimes from the very 
poverty of language, the same man uses the same words 
in different senses. Then any word conveys a meaning 
to us only according to our knowledge and experience. 
When I use a word from my standpoint, you apply that 
word from yours, and the result is, with the same word, 
we are far from having the same thing. Suppose we 
had no perfect knowledge of the appearance of a human 
head, but each of us had seen one and were called upon 
to describe it. If you had seen the full face, then you had 
seen the eyes, the nose, the mouth. If I had seen a pro- 
file, then I had seen the same features, but under a 
very different aspect. If another looks at the back of 
the head, then he sees not these features at all. The 
result is, our reports differ and yet in a measure they 
are all true. Then if we were all talking of the profile, 
even no two of us perhaps would agree as to the exact 
point at which the perfect profile began. So, in any 
subject, one view melts into another. Blessed is he 
who knows that any subject has many sides — more 
blessed is he, who, by patience .and diligence, has seen 
more sides than one. 

The better to understand each other to-day, suppose 
we agree to consider God's view of us — I mean this hu- 
man unit, the human race, as strictly parental. Let us 
not divide the race into anything — as heathen and 
Christian — righteous and wicked — and let us suppose 
God looks upon us all as His children, not as a judge 
looks upon a criminal, without affection or real sympa- 
thy, but with a heart yearning with every instinct of 
divinest love. Let us also take the same view of man- 
kind as we suppose God to take, 



204 



SERMONS. 



If it be asked whether this is a right and scriptural 
view, I can only say, I think it is. If Scripture, or na- 
ture, or reason, or fact, says that God divides us in His 
affection, I have never seen it ; I have looked for it, but 
I cannot find it. I find we are to some extent divided 
as to the degrees we receive of God's love, but so far 
from its being God's doing, it is in spite of all He has 
done to prevent it. There are wicked men, and they 
are punished ; but not with anything God hurls upon 
them, but only with that which God's love cannot pre- 
vent. God's machinery for keeping us from ruin is 
infinite. However wicked, or criminal we may be, 
God is still the truest and best friend the universe has 
in it for us. There are none righteous as God would 
like to see us righteous — none Christian as God would 
like to see us Christian. We are all heathen and all 
sinners — but a step from the best to the worst — the 
worst, but for God's grace not so bad as it would be, and 
the best not so good as by God's grace it ought to be. 
He had mercy upon all, and sent His Son that all might 
see that mercy and return to the bosom of our Father's 
love. That love is the law out of which all things pro- 
ceed, and to which all things must answer. 

This will help us to define and understand what is 
meant by u justification" "to justify" This is an expres- 
sion which has been much used in theology, but very 
little used by Christ, and not by Him at all in our ordi- 
nary theological sense ; at least I am not able to recall 
a passage in which it is so used by Him. We all know 
what justice means — " the rendering to any one his 
right" — "conformity to truth, or reality." "Justifica- 
tion," or "to justify," are words kindred to the word 
justice. " To justify " is " to prove a thing to be con- 



♦ 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 205 

formable to right." What we mean by right is, as God 
has made things. In the moral world certain things 
must be, as, in mathematics, twice two must be four, 
God must be love — love must be forgiving. "Justifi- 
cation " is conformity to that in moral being which the 
law of love has made right. If that has made it right 
that upon repentance and amendment we should have 
all our sins forgiven, then when we have truly repented 
and amended, we are justified in believing our sins for- 
given. We stand acquitted. If we would justify our- 
selves in any action, then we must show we have acted 
according to right. If we justify any act, then we can- 
not be visited with the penalty of a wrong act. If we 
have done a thing which is wrong by our law. and yet 
a thing under the circumstances justified by a higher 
law — if we kill a man, e. g\, which under one law is a 
wrong thing, and yet do it under the higher law of self- 
defence, we are treated as if we had not killed a man. 
So, if we have sinned, and we repent and amend, and 
God forgives, we are treated as though we had not sinned. 
Hence the theological sense of justification to treat as 
just, one who to all appearance is guilty and deserving of 
punishment. Hence as a still further sense derived in 
consequence, it sometimes means, pardon or absolution. 
Now, the law of absolution, or pardon, is the law of 
God's love. It was made in the beginning when all other 
things were made. It involved the atonement. I do 
not know why, but there is the fact across all time- 
graven in the instincts of the whole human race. Infinite 
wisdom so ordained. I do know, that, but for the atone- 
ment, we could not have known the love of God. If 
my mother had neglected me, left me alone without an 
example,, or a word of counsel, I could not have known 



206 



SERMONS. 



she loved me. I should have had reason to believe she 
did not love me. Her patience, her self-denial, her 
struggle to teach me and train me, they appeal to the 
depths of my being and fill me with convincement of 
her love. Jesus Christ, from the bosom of the Father, 
made an atonement. It was virtually made in the be- 
ginning. It might have been made for other worlds as 
well as ours, but whether it was or not, it was made for 
all our world. Jesus "tasted death for every man." 
" He died not for our sins only but also for the sins of 
the whole world." It was of God's own free love. 
" The free gift came upon all men to justification." The 
Universalist looks at this and says : "All men are saved." 
But look at it — we were all pardoned — but when you 
forgive a man a sin, you do not necessarily make him 
love you and rid hirn of his sinfulness. The door of life 
was thrown wide open. If we would enter, God would 
give us liberally of eternal life and upbraid us not — 
never reap up anything. In a sense, we were all. saved. 
The chains were stricken off. We were set free, and as 
free — free to go back and put them on again if we 
chose. Only, even then, God would not curse us, but 
restrain us and help to find Him out and come nearer to 
Him. Being released was redemption. Being like 
Him would be salvation. Only that must be our own 
act. God will not impose anything upon a moral being. 
The atonement made us free. God can have nothing 
in His moral Kingdom by coercion, but all things by 
volition. The soul that comes to Him must not only 
be convinced that there is no other God — but be thrilled 
with an increasing yearning to come closer to Him, so that 
that soul shall never, in the cycles of being to come, 
wander away from Him. The law of life in Christ Jesus 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 



207 



was for all men, therefore for those before Calvary 
as for those after it. By means of it, the Spirit of 
God dwelt with man to show him the way in which he 
ought to go. You find a moral sense among all the na- 
tions of the earth. That Spirit was with Enoch before 
the flood, and with Noah and Job and Abraham, and no 
nation has been without it. None living before Calvary 
knew much about the atonement. Millions of them, 
absolutely nothing. None now know much. I am 
satisfied we do not see yet the beginning of that mys- 
terious sacrifice upon Calvary. Millions still know ab- 
solutely nothing of it. Still its blessing to us is not ac- 
cording to our knowledge of it — it envelops us like an 
atmosphere ; we live in it ; we live by it. It is the all- 
pervading element of God's all-pervading love. You 
must perceive in this light, how absolutely true it is, 
that " there is no other name given under heaven 
whereby ye may be saved." And how it is, that 
any man living up to the light of God's Spirit — given 
him by means of this atonement — though he be in a 
heathen land, may still be saved, and how and why it is 
true, that " in every nation he that feareth God is ac- 
cepted with Him." That is all that God wants, whether 
we know of Christ or do not know of Him, that is the 
very object for which the atonement was made, that we 
might " fear God and do righteousness." That builds 
us into a likeness of Him and that is salvation. It is 
not the degree of our knoivledge of Christ that saves us, 
but the degree of our likeness to Him through the 
Spirit of God. Even the atonement Himself — the very 
light of God — in guiding a soul to the kingdom, said 
not a word of the atonement itself, but only the result 
for which the atonement was made — do this " — this 



208 



SERMONS. 



that thou knowest to be right — " and thou shalt be 
saved." If they may do it who know not of Christ, 
through the light they have and the Spirit given to 
them, how undutiful, and. therefore doubly lost are they 
who knowing Christ do it not ! Not because God con- 
demneth, but that light is come into the world and 
they love darkness rather than light because their deeds 
are evil. 

Now this atonement had been foretold— it was fore- 
told to a people whom God selected as a channel through 
which to convey the knowledge of it to the race. That 
people were too blind to perceive their work and could 
not recognize the Messiah when He came. It is no use 
to say, " suppose the Jews had recognized Him and not 
crucified Him. How, then, could the atonement have 
been made ?" They were our representatives. Had 
we been a people who could appreciate Christ, we had 
then been as the angels, and so not needful of any atone- 
ment. The same cause which made the atonement nec- 
essary, made the crucifixion a fact. Beside, the cruci- 
fixion was not the whole atonement, as I shall presently 
show. The Jews, by mistaking the righteousness that 
God wanted, only acted a part as if in a play — and, so 
far from becoming truly religious guides, became the 
worst of men. In their wrangling once with the Mes- 
siah, they asked Him what they must do in order to do 
the works of God, and He replied — " This is the work 
of God — that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent." 
This is your work and the work of your race, that you 
accept me, a true guide, into all the truth and blessings 
God designs for His children. As much as to say, as 
He did say on another occasion, " I am the way, the 
truth, and the life." By following me, you shall find 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 209 

the truth, and that truth shall lead into real life. That 
is the only road that leads to God. 

This atonement then involved the incarnation. The 
incarnation was the atonement. The incarnation em- 
braces the manger, and the grave and resurrection, and 
all between them — not one act, nor a few acts, but 
all — the virtue — the instruction — the works — Gethsem- 
ene — the cross — the tomb. That was what Jesus gave 
for us man, and for our redemption. 

Sometimes in speaking of a thing we use a part for 
the whole. It is the whole atonement which "justifies" 
me or you, though we be sinners, in coming to God for 
forgiveness. But the Scripture says : " He rose again 
for our justification." It is more than once said : " We 
are justified by His blood" You see, a prominent part — 
the culminating part of the thing — is put for the whole 
thing. 

Then the Scripture changes the view — not as from 
God to us, but as from us to God. We have been con- 
templating God's act toward us. It now turns to con- 
template our act toward God. It speaks of us as avail- 
ing ourselves of the pardon God has provided. Even 
the heathen believes in God's love and forgiveness, and 
fears God and works righteousness in that belief, though 
he know nothing of the law by which that forgiveness 
comes. We know of the law and believe in the pardon, 
and come for it. There is belief in both cases, or we 
could not come. That belief brings us. Scrip turally 
and theologically it is called faith— in our case it is faith 
in the atonement — the effect of God's love. In the 
heathen's case it is faith in God's love — the cause of the 
atonement. In either case it is faith in God, and hence 
Paul putting the hand that accepts for the thing accept- 

27 . 



210 



SERMONS. 



ed, says : " A man is justified by faith" Really, he is 
justified by the law of life in Christ Jesus, but his faith 
brings him there to accept it, and by a common figure 
it is said " his faith justifies him," or " he is justified 
by faith." 

Then sometimes, when a spiritual thing has a phj r si- 
cal sign, we use the sign for the thing signified. We 
speak of the cross as of the Gospel — of the cross, some- 
times, as of Christ. Now there may be a body where 
there is no soul — a dead body — so there may be works 
where there is no faith — dead works. But in this mun- 
dane sphere — so far as we know — there can be no soul 
where there is no body. So there can be no faith 
where there are no works. "Faith without works is 
dead," i. e., it is not at all — it is only a thing we dream 
of. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of 
food, and you say unto them, depart in peace, be 
warmed and clothed, though you give them nothing they 
need, where is the profit ? If your faith produces no 
more than another man's unfaith, then what is the good 
of it ? Whoever is good for nothing is not saved. It 
matters not what he thinks. Even so, fai^h, if it hath 
not works, is dead. If you show me your faith without 
your works, you show me nothing. Abraham was jus- 
tified by his works. But for his works we could not 
have known we had faith. The body is put with the 
soul — the sign with the thing signified — and you see 
therefore how that " by works a man is justified." 

In a few words, of justification the love of God is 
the procuring cause — the atonement, in conjunction with 
our faith, is our availing means. Good works are the 
evidence of our faith. 

Reason it, or Scripture it back again — only he that 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK, 



211 



worketh hath any faith — or truly believeth — "not every 
one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." "You are my disciples if you do 
whatsoever I command you." This is the very purpose 
of the Gospel. " Herein is my Father glorified that ye 
bear much fruit." Only he that believeth can be saved. 
Without faith it is impossible to please God. Truly 
believe and thou shalt be saved — truly believe and you 
are saved. 

Take other Scriptures again : " Every work shall be 
brought into judgment, whether it be good or evil." 
When you are at the bar of God your life will be on the 
witness stand. "'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall 
he also reap." While salvation is extended to all, he 
alone receives it who accepts it, and each one has it in 
proportion as he is willing to receive it. So God is just 
and the justifier of him that believeth." You and I 
are every day laying up treasure in heaven, or every 
day failing to lay up treasure in heaven. You will not 
have my reward, and I shall not have your reward. If 
you are close to Christ great will be your gain. If I 
am far from Him great will be my loss, and our distance 
from Him is not according to our creed, but according 
to our likeness to Him. 

Now, there is much said in the Scriptures about works. 
In all that Jesus Christ says and recommends every 
thing is very plain, and you must have observed how 
in the Gospels Christ constantly dwells upon works. 
Mark the difference between Him and those that only 
borrow from Him. It is when we come to Paul and the 
Epistles we find ourselves puzzled. Much is said of 
faith. Much is said of good works, the evidence of 
faith, and the unskillful reader is likely to get confused, 



212 



SERMONS. 



In the early ages of the world men were yet too much 
in infancy to apprehend a pure thought. They had to 
be taught by signs, and figures and symbols, and out- 
ward representations, as we teach our children by maps 
and globes and artificial aids. The condition which 
rendered this a necessity involved with it a very great 
danger— that of mistaking the representation for the 
thing represented — just as if our children should attach 
a sacred value to lions and crabs — supposing them to 
be among the stars, because they are the signs of our 
zodiac. A stone was set up to commemorate the good- 
ness of God. It became a god. A temple was built in 
which to worship, and lo ! they conceived that God 
was nowhere else but there. What was done as an ex- 
pedient became a necessity. What was purely an ac- 
cident became an essence— commandments were made, 
and religion became a mortal system. That which God 
intended to set us free turned men into slaves. For a 
very specific purpose a very peculiar system grew up 
among the Jews. The meaning of it they wholly mis- 
took. The eternal law of which in the beginning they 
had more than any nation- — they merged into their ec- 
clesiastical system. From being the most favored peo- 
ple they became the most superstitious. They made a 
law as cruel as death, and as unyielding as the grave. 
Religion thus became — not what God made it — a thing 
to make us more true, more pure, more wise, but a 
thing having nothing to do with heaven or earth— an 
effigy, a toy, a thing to curse and not to bless. 

Christ came to do away old things— to make all things 
new— came " to call us unto liberty " — came to take us 
out of our minority into manhood, into pure 'thought, 
into truth and reality, Many thought they believed in 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 



213 



Him and understood him, but they could not rise above 
their old ideas, and insisted upon carrying the name of 
Christ into their old dead forms — into circumcision and 
baptism, into the priesthood, and all the machinery of 
the old dead law. Paul resisted this with every energy 
of his being. In all his Epistles, especially that to the 
Romans, he endeavors to show that Christ is the one 
sacrifice, Christ the only priest, Calvary the only altar ; 
that henceforth God cares nothing for forms but only 
for things ; God wants in us sincerity, reality, because 
man wants truth, education, virtue, grace, mercy, love, 
no more toys and shadows. He denounces the law as 
that which killeth. " By the works of the law can no 
man be justified." They blind the mental and spiritual 
eye ; they make men more selfish ; they are not life, but 
death. He recommends every grace and every virtue, 
all that is lovely and of good report, with an emphasis 
which has never been surpassed. In drawing his lines 
he used expressions which have been misunderstood. 
Things dovetailed into other things have been torn from 
their connections. These fragments have been magni- 
fied into doctrines, and Paul has been made an authority 
for very foolish things. Many went to an extreme 
directly opposite that involved in the old law. Because 
a thing, a thought, a soul-verity must be apprehended 
in the mind, in the conscience, in the spiritual man, 
irrespective of the form it might assume, men conceived 
that all outward acts or works were superfluous. They 
set to dreaming — building grand castles in heaven, lay- 
ing unction to their souls, pretending to be saints while 
not fit to live upon earth. Because faith must be an 
inward thing, they even went so far as to imagine the 
more they sinned the greater their faith, " Shall we 



214 



SERMONS. 



continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid." 
They did not perceive that God had made soul-verities 
for no other purpose than to be breathed into life. That 
was religion not to make something artificial, but to put 
the real into the real, that which was alive into life, and 
so make life a blessing, a progression, more and more 
into the peace and good-will we long for — more and 
more into the perfect clay God has designed for us. No 
wonder James comes in to tell them to take notice that 
a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. 

These two errors — the law on the one side and dead 
faith on the other — have been contending in the world 
against the truth, against man's real and highest sood, 
ever since the clays of the Apostles. They are conten- 
ding against it still. They have their leaders, their 
armies, their arsenals, their fortifications. They appear 
sometimes to us to be working against each other, but 
it only appears so. They are both together working 
against Christ, against man, as all error of necessity 
must. The one brings to us ignorance, superstition — 
the middle-ages fossilized — the Dark Ages preserved. 
The other perpetuates pride, indifference to human good, 
wrapping oneself up in oneself. The two together have 
made history very nearly repeat herself — have brought 
us back to a heathen civilization, to great worldliness 
and carnality, to great churches, to cravings after riches, 
to envying and grudging each other, to unrest and anx- 
iety, to pauperism, to the gnawing question of how to 
live, to the abolition of marriage, to the adoption of 
divorce, to the scattering of families and the preven- 
tion of families, to the fact that men are looking about 
for hermitages — in short, to the brink of endless calamity 
and ruin. The old law. ritualism — call it by what 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 



215 



name you will — is death. The self-complacency of 
Christians, the old dead faith — faith with works — the 
grand experiences and high hopes we talk about, and 
which withal we do nothing — it is death. In neither 
of them are we justified. We stand condemned. ( We 
have neither faith nor works. We need conversion. If 
we are upon either side we are against Christ, against 
God, against man, against our own souls. We need to 
have our souls converted and our whole life-action in- 
verted; otherwise, be God's mercy what it may be, our 
creeds what they may, we have failed to apprehend the 
Saviour. We have not come out of darkness into light, 
out of the power of Satan unto God. You see salvation 
is not something away off beyond the grave. Salva- 
tion is something here. If we are saved the fact is 
proclaimed. If we are not saved that fact is proclaimed 
too. You see how that we are justified by works, and 
not by faith only. 

Now the thought occurs to me here, what are my 
good works ! I confess I cannot mention one ; all my 
greatest undertakings have been my greatest failures ; 
I have never done one work which was not a marred, 
incomplete and unsatisfactory thing. If there has been 
any goodness about it — that has only showed how the 
whole could have been and ought to have been better. 
David said — " in God's sight, could no man living be 
justified." Verily, no man, even in his own sight, if he 
knows how to see, can justify himself. But this helps 
us to see what the good works are which God requires. 
You send your child to do a given thing ; you could do 
it yourself and do it better ; you could send somebody 
else to do it and do it better, but that is not the thing. 
You want your child to learn how to do it; you want 



216 



SERMONS. 



that child to manifest a spirit of obedience, of respect, of 
desire to please. The child's work delights } r ou according 
to the spirit that animates it. You show it the imperfec- 
tion of its work that in another attempt it may attain to a 
greater success. Gradually the child becomes like you. 
It is the spirit God wants in us all, that we may become 
like Him. He wants that spirit right in the realities 
amid which He places us. We confound good-works with 
with great-works. God knows no such thing in us as 
great-work* — that is impossible. If we undertake a 
great work, that work is a meanness in God's sight. God 
wants no great cathedrals and magnificent churches. The 
Hindoos have those. The Moslems have those. The 
Jews of the long ago in that, beat us all. They are di- 
vided unto all people under heaven. God wants no 
hi^h-soundin^ names— no Pharisaic ambition. The 
wonderful works of Jesus were not His most wonderful 
works. Nor were they anything in themselves except 
as thejf were types for us. God wants us to raise the 
dead, to cast out devils, to feed the hungry ; God wants 
us to be true to the trusts committed to us in life, wants 
us to have a calling in which we contemplate the real 
good of our fellow men, and one legitimate calling is as 
good as another, mine no better than yours. He wants 
me to know the truth, and preach the truth and practice 
the truth. Wants us to know that mind and soul are 
the gems of our being, wants us to get out of ignorance, 
out of self, into knowledge and a higher life ; wants us to 
have every grace, every virtue, without ever thinking 
we have one grace or one virtue. If you can realize 
the responsibility of life, if you can train your children, 
if you can unite your household in bonds of love — if 
you can by example and precept stimulate a noble am- 



THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK. 217 

bition in those around you ; if you can mould another 
being into a Christian manhood or womanhood, you 
can do a good work. If you can be true and just in all 
your dealings, if you can pay your debts, if you can live 
within your income and not be ashamed to do it, if you 
can be pure and transparent in your life, if you can give 
only words of sincerity to those whom you know de- 
spise you, if you can hear very silly things said to you 
in the name of politeness and not repeat those things 
back again nor to anybody else, you can do a very good 
work. If you can have a liberal public spirit that cares 
for your neighbor as for yourself, if you can build a 
church to which you can bring the poor and not for the 
sake of something for you to glory in — if you can go to 
church yourself to worship God and not study your 
neighbor's clothes, you can do a very good work. If you 
can go out to work for people who do not appreciate 
your work; if you can give food to the worthless; if 
you can give clothes to your enemy ; if when you are 
reviled you revile not again ; if you can bear to be told 
you are a fool and half believe it ; if you can bear the 
burdens and ills of life, the crosses and privations, with 
a submissive, an acquiescent mind ; if you can thank 
God for all His dealings with you ; if you can thank 
Him for any usefulness, at whatever cost you may ac- 
complish ; if you can nestle home to Him and feel He 
is your Father, then you can do a good work, then you 
can please Him, and in His infinite love be reckoned 
with the angels in heaven. Do you ask me if your 
works will save you ? I tell you, no ! Jesus Christ saves 
you, and your works will tell you whether you are saved. 
" You see then how that by works a man is justified and 
not by faith only." 

28 . . 



218 



SERMONS. 



MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

Romans 8: 16, ll. — The Spirit itself bearetk witness with our spirit, that 
we are the children of God, and if children then heirs — heirs of God and 
joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also 
glorified together. 

The Apostle in this chapter enters upon a contrast 
between the works of the flesh and the works of the 
spirit. In other words, the contrast is between a carnal 
condition and a spiritual condition. This material world, 
these physical bodies, are just as much a part of God's 
work as the spiritual world, these souls of ours. Inher- 
ently in the nature of things, there is no more evil in 
one than in the other. Both are right, as God made 
them ; both are good, or He would not have made them. 
One is implied in the other ; they supplement each other, 
or, more properly perhaps, one is but a means to the 
other — soul is the end, body is the means — soul is the 
temple, body is the stairs to reach it. Or, soul may be 
but a higher circle of one and the same being, of which 
body is but a lower circle. Soul embraces body, but 
body embraces not soul. One hundred embraces fifty 
and ten and one, but one and ten and fifty do not embrace 
one hundred. The calculus embraces arithmetic, but 
arithmetic embraces not the calculus. Soul has her laws 
and body has her laws, and yet they are not two laws, 
but one law — i. e., not two systems of law, but parts of 
the same system ; they are not at strife with each other, 
but sweetly harmonic and mutually sustaining. The 
brain and the body are not at variance ; the brain has 
a mental work to do and the hands a physical work, but 
in their health and perfection they are in harmony and 



MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT, 



219 



each is minister to the other. So has God made body 
and soul. 

In actual life, however, you never find a perfectly 
sound mind in a perfectly sound body. Some force of 
ignorance, of error — some force latent and inherited, or 
palpable and cultivated — lead men to cultivate body at 
the expense of mind, or mind at the expense of body, 
and so a perfect man, except in Jesus Christ, this world 
has not known. So, likewise, a perfect soul in a per- 
fect body — a perfect harmony between soul and body — 
in other words, a holy being, except in Christ Jesus, 
has been unknown to man. All this race, from ignor- 
ance first, and then from wilfulness which ignorance 
produces, has lapsed into transgression — i. e., into vio- 
lation of laws both spiritual and physical, and so into 
what is scripturally called sin. Men have all along 
lived only in their lower nature — in their carnality — 
ungoverned by their spiritual nature. Men are living 
there still. If you cut off the head from the body, the 
body dies. Not only so, if you derange the brain — even if 
you leave the brain uncultivated, so that its judgments 
are weak and foolish when they ought to be strong and 
wise — the body goes to destruction. Cut off brain from 
a man or a nation, and you get death and corruption. 
So cut off soul from body and you get moral death and 
corruption. The actual state of man, therefore, is hence 
a carnal state — i. e., it is almost exclusive carnality, 
and hence it is a degraded, corrupt state — a state .of sin, 
a state of condemnation, a ruin, a mass of suffering, as 
if it were undergoing a penalty. The harmony, the 
peace, the perfection even of the bodily being, are all 
lost, gone. Paul speaks here of the actual state, not 
the theoretic state, or what might be called man's first 



220 



SERMONS. 



estate, and hence he says the spirit warreth against the 
flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. These are con- 
trary the one to the other — i. e. ? there is actual war 
going on. The carnal nature is fond of folly, sensual 
indulgence, fond of all that is unreal and make-believe. 
It accepts means for ends — present for future. Being 
is blurred all the way through ; real spirit is unknown 
to it. If it think of the spirit and undertake to min- 
ister thereto, it even turns spiritual things into carnal. 
It accepts superstition for religion. 

Hence Paul says, in another place, the works of the 
flesh are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- 
ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, 
wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, envyings, murders, drunk- 
enness, revellings, and such like. Then, in another 
place, lifting it up into a churchly or religious point of 
view, he says — Ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is 
among you envying and strife and division, are ye not 
carnal and walk as men ; for while one saith I am of 
Paul and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal ? i 
e., in all these things, you are only following the bent 
of a carnal nature. You do not know the spirit ; you 
are yet in transgression and therefore in condemnation. 
Hence it is, that sometimes even in our religious matters 
we may be as worldly, at last, as if there were no such 
thing as religion. There are manifold intimations of 
this in Scripture and demonstrations of it in actual fact. 
The carnal spirit, i. e., the spirit under the control of 
carnality, is not confined to what we call carnal things. 
We carry that spirit from its own plane into what we 
conceive to be a religious plane. In other words, if we 
have only the lower nature ; from any cause, if we are 
only carnal ; then, we will carry that spirit through our 



MANIFESTATION OP THE SPIRIT. 



221 



whole being. Every man will live in the highest being 
known to him, i. e., that actually experienced by him, 
for only that is known to him; so that a man's life, even 
his religious forms are but a declaration of the man. 

The whole object of the mission of Christ to this 
earth was to lift man out of this carnality. Being there^ 
man is but an animal; worse than that, a suffering, sinking 
animal. Christ is come not to take any faculty away 
from man ; not to change his being, in its organic struc- 
ture, but to reveal his whole being to him, especially 
his higher being. When a man is converted he does 
not lose anything ; even his old vices cry out to be re- 
tained. He does not gain anything except the vision 
of things that are, and a desire to become what he ought 
to be. Christ is come to tell us of laws not yet known; 
laws by which man was more than animal, and might 
rise above the animal ; laws which should lift him into 
spirit, and make him capable of understanding and en- 
joying the universe and God. The mission of Christ 
was a spiritual mission. He did not intend to reveal to 
us the various facts of natural philosophy ; there was 
no need of it. Place the soul in harmony with God, 
and all philosophy, all knowledge is in it. Get the 
kingdom of heaven, and all other things are added to it. 
The revival of true religion, of truth as it is in Christ, 
is the revival of every blessing known to man. The 
knowledge and practice of spiritual things is, hence, an 
undoing of carnal things, a reversion of carnal action. 
It is the practice of all virtue, grace and excellence ; it 
is, hence, liberation from the penalties of sin, from deg- 
radation, from a blind and hardened and unbelieving 
heart. It puts reality for show ; simplicity for cere- 
mony; truth for words; deeds for rites; action for 



222 



SERMONS. 



creed. It is emancipation from all that can enslave ; 
and hence Paul says, in the beginning of this chapter, 
" there is now no condemnation to them who are in 
Christ Jesus: who walk not after the flesh but after the 
Spirit." No condemnation, no penalties to pay to those 
who are in this spiritual condition of Christ, this har- 
mony of law. "The law of life in Christ Jesus sets us 
free from the law of sin and death." No condemnation 
now nor at any other time. They walk in light, in free- 
dom. Having the Spirit of God they ai*e sons of God. 
" The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffer- 
ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, 
against such there is no law." You see heaven there. 
Redemption, sanctification, glory, are all in it. When 
you bring eternity and the universe to it, you bring a 
heritage of all knowledge, of all wisdom, of all happi- 
ness, of transcendent perfections. The secret things of 
God are there for us, whole territories of our own being 
now not dreamed of, are there for us ; loves, affections, 
emotions ; powers, capacities, and actions of which we 
have no conception, are there for us. There is not only no 
condemnation, but there is what we call reward — what 
the Saviour calls treasure laid up in heaven — what Paul 
calls an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that 
fadeth not away, eternal for us in heaven. You see 
it is not something arbitrarily created by God for a few ; 
not something dogmatically asserted by the Scriptures ; 
not something under any priestly or churchly control. 
It grows out of obedience and faith and love, as con- 
demnation grows out of disobedience and unfaith and 
unlove. It is the crown, like the apple that, crowns the 
autumn. You cannot withhold it from me ; I cannot 
withhold it from you. Once in it, neither height nor 



MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT. 



223 



depth, nor things present, nor things to come, nor life 
nor death, nor any creature, can separate us from the 
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Now Paul says, the Spirit beareth witness with our 
spirit that we are children of God. The Spirit is the 
truth, the essence of truth, the fullness of God — our 
spirit is the man, the essence of our manhood, our full- 
ness of humanity. In a true spiritual condition, in this 
Gospel of Christ in Christ, there is a communion, a wit- 
nessing of both sides, one to the other. The Spirit of 
God witnesseth not by verbal revelation, not by unnat- 
ural means, but by the harmony existing between God's 
work in the soul and God's work in nature and grace. 
The Spirit of God witnesseth with the spirit of Abra- 
ham that he is a child of God — with the spirit of 
Moses, of Joseph, of Daniel, of Paul, of John, of Thomas 
a Kempis, of Jeremy Taylor, that they are children of 
God. There is love and joy and peace ; there is first 
an internal experience and evidence ; there is harmony, 
a scriptural, reasonable, catholic consistency ; and so, 
there is an external evidence confirming the internal. 
The evidence of truth witnesseth * with our minds in 
science. When we believe the sun goes round the world, 
there is much every day that we cannot account for — 
much that is mysterious — much that we have to refer 
to unnatural and miraculous agency. But when we be- 
lieve the world moves round the sun, then the seasons, 
all the phenomena of the heavens and the earth confirm 
that we are the children of the truth. In the error, 
progress in truth is impossible. Once in the truth, prog- 
ress is inevitable. In our carnality there are a thou- 
sand things we cannot explain — inconsistencies which 
we can feel, but which we cannot define. That is one 



224 



SERMONS. 



reason why in much of our religious worship there is 
much which annoys us, distracts us, but we cannot ex- 
actly show its inconsistency. We are led into follies, 
into doctrines which no Scripture nor reason ever sug- 
gested — into discussions and envyings and works of a 
superstitious routine — into what Paul calls, in the verse 
preceding the text, " the bondage of fear." 

But in our spirituality, while there is much unknown 
to us, there is harmony between the parts of what we 
do know, a patient walking with God ; a spirit opposed 
to lust and passion, to pomp and vanity ; a spirit sus- 
tained under sorrow, under accident, under any provi- 
dence or cross : a spirit of submission, acquiescence, 
humility : a spirit of holy desire, and hence of prayer 
and supplication— hence a spirit of love and active be- 
nevolence and usefulness — a spirit of self-sacrifice, of 
divine nobility, of Christ-likeness. There is the inter- 
nal evidence and the external evidence. Wickedness 
does not abound, and nothing said about it. Vice and 
dissipation do not revel, and nobody shed a tear of pity 
over it. Law and science and all agencies for s:ood do 
not slumber, and nobody draw them out, and wake 
them up and put them to their proper work. It is not 
all ecstacy and self-complacency and creed and comfor- 
table churches and easy doctrine. It is not simply 
man's own assertion that he has the Spirit with him. 
Men sometimes in very great error and unwisdom — 
sometimes in very great wickedness even, claim to have 
the spirit with them. But it does not depend upon as- 
sumption or conjecture. It is soul alive. It is the 
life of God in man. It is the spirit of Christ in action. 
It is heaven commenced upon earth. It is the kingdom 
of God set up. God's will done on earth even as it is 



MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT. 



225 



in heaven. Truly born again, the spirit of God witness- 
eth with our spirit, not merely to it but with it, that we 
are the children of God ; witnesseth not only to our- 
selves but to the world ; and this witness grows stronger 
as we grow older, till the Christian's life is the pledge of 
his faith and the day of his death his day of entrance 
upon a higher life. Now Paul says — if we are this, 
then what ? Who shall tell ? " If we are children, 
then heirs — heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ." You 
cannot help seeing, it seems to me, the natural, the inevi- 
table sequence here — the connection as between cause 
and effect. Nothing extraordinary, nothing arbitrary 
is done here. God does not create a new estate and a 
new title for each child, something separate, something 
cut off from all things else. No — God is the fullness of 
all things. He is the heritage of his children. The 
universe is His, not only the heavens and the heaven of 
heavens, not only the worlds we see and the systems of 
worlds beyond them we do not see, but the beings in 
all worlds and all heavens — the grades of those beings, 
the laws which attach to each ; the endowments, pur- 
poses and uses of all ; our own nature, the faculties we 
have, the responsiveness of all nature to ours ; beauties 
for these eyes ; music for these ears ; loves and joys for 
these hearts ; developments for these minds ; peace in 
self-communion, and communion with one another and 
with God ; the negatives of being, like pain and sick- 
ness and death, like ignorance and poverty and sorrow 
and tears, all removed; time no longer with its re- 
morseless scythe cutting off our opportunities, but eter- 
nity inviting us onward to perfect consummation and 
bliss. God comprehends that. To see and know that 
is to approach God. This is part of the heritage. It 



220 



SERMONS. 



has not entered into the heart of man to conceive it all. 
If we had never seen a man in the full vigor of his man- 
hood, we should have no conception of manhood by look- 
ing upon a little babe ; so from what we see here, it has 
not entered into our heart to conceive the glory that 
shall be revealed. They are God's children who grow 
into that : we are God's children only as we grow into 
that whether in this world or any other. The degrees 
of growth in this make the difference between cheru- 
bim and seraphim, between archangels and angels, be- 
tween the glory of one star and the glory of another in 
the eternal firmament. Christ Jesus is the fullness of 
God ; He knows all ; He is King of Kings, Lord of 
Lords ; the first-born above all brethren. For Him all 
things are and were created — He is heir. We are joint- 
heirs. Oh, to be taken into Him — into His spiritual, 
glorified nature — this is what God intended for all His 
children. This is what the forge tt or of God, the prodi- 
gal son, loses, comes short of, is shut out from. God 
is not there at the death of the sinner to hang a 
new millstone round his neck, to appoint him a deeper 
place in a deeper hell. He would keep him back from 
the deepest hell, as He tries every day to do by all 
holy restraints and influences. But the sinner goes to 
his own place, goes to what he is fitted for, and what is 
fitted for him. He cannot see God and love and peace 
and virtue and glory, and they are far from him, and 
that it is to be in the outer darkness — the darkness out- 
side the presence of God. And so, believer, when you 
die, God is not there with a great crown and a long 
scepter, and a boundless dominion that you know noth- 
ing about — because you have had a name attached to 
you to be His in this world. Peter's crown and the mar- 



MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT. 



227 



tyr's palm are not given to me, if I have only dreamed 
about Peter and martyrdom. Ignorance and worldli- 
ness and self-indulgence and uncharity and all carnality 
are not rewarded with visions of exalted glory and pow- 
ers of grandest immortality. No, we too go to our 
own place. If you go out and gaze upon nature and 
know nothing about nature, then nature is a sealed and 
dead thing to you. If you go up and gaze upon God 
and know nothing about God, God will be at an infinite 
remove from you. We must reap as we have sown. 
He that has sown sparingly must reap sparingly. The 
Saviour said : — When he came whose pound had gained 
ten pounds, he said to him be thou ruler over ten cities ; 
and when he came whose pound had gained five pounds, 
he said to him, be thou ruler over five cities. You 
will see all that you have eyes to see, and hear all that 
you have ears to hear, and be full of bliss as your spirit 
is capable of holy emotion. The things of that upper 
kingdom cannot be trifled with. The Saviour said they 
are not mine to give. He would like to give, but such 
is not moral being. You cannot give your knowledge 
to your child. They shall be given to those for whom 
they are prepared of my Father, and the Father hath 
prepared them for those only who come prepared for 
them. He is no respecter of persons ; so that there is 
no room here for dreaming, no room for miscalculations 
upon God's mercy, no room for the delusive unction of 
self-conceit. The estate and the title are in each child ; 
new in each, because each is new to the estate and title. 
The kingdom of heaven is in you, whatever of the king- 
dom there is for you. The heritage is infinite. The 
heirship is limited. We are every day making up the 
amount of our eternal riches, every day fixing the lines 
of our eternal estate. 



228 



SERMONS. 



And hence you see the naturalness with which Paul 
passes over from the idea of heirship and heritage, to the 
idea of suffering with Christ : " If so be that we suffer 
with Him, that we may be also glorified together." It 
is one peculiarity of the Christian faith that it is con- 
stantly practical. It opens no doors to wild conjecture. 
It leaves us not to mere dreams of the imagination. 
Paul has sent our thoughts roaming over the skies and 
piercing the eternities. He brings us back to time, to 
this world of strange vicissitude and mingled experience. 
This actual, present life, what of that ? " If so be that 
we suffer with Christ " — it does not say, if you have 
been wholly immersed in baptism ; if you believe a piece 
of bread to be a piece of flesh ; if his or other apostolic 
hands have been laid upon your head ; if you are happy 
and very contented, with plenty to enjoy and nobody 
to trouble you ; if you are sick and poor, and the victim 
of wrong and evil your sins have naturally brought upon 
you ; but if you suffer with Christ. How did He suffer ? 
He was rich, up in glory, away from our world and all 
its woes. One woe of them ail he did not make nor 
help to make \ yet for our sake He became poor, gave 
up all He had. No, out of His true riches, in His true 
riches, in the panoply of eternal love, He came here and 
gave Himself, gave thirty-three years of suffering and 
buffeting and contradiction for us, that we through His 
poverty might be made rich. His suffering was not the 
result of mere providence, of necessity. It was a con- 
scious, willing offering; He had power to lay down His life 
and power to take it again ; He laid it down of Himself. 
Have we of His riches ? Do we see the eternal things 
He saw— the true glory of heaven-born love. What do 
we lay down ? what do we give up ? what of our carnal 



MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT. 



229 



being do we daily crucify ? what of trial, of wrong, of 
bitterness do we daily endure, quietly swallow down, 
that we might be like Christ? What of burdens for 
others do we take up ? the poor, the ignorant, the out- 
of-the-way. What sacrifices of time, of talent, of means, 
do we give for our brother ? How much good lives by 
means of us ? What is the value of our lives ? How 
much better off is our world by our Christianity ? You 
see, it is not suffering that we cannot help which is to 
be reckoned. It is suffering which is out of an active, 
loving, aggressive piety. It is not the routine of our 
religion which is to come into the account, but the vol- 
untary, practical, daily soul-action. It is not the ab- 
sence of vice God wants in us, but the presence of vir- 
tue. " If so be that we suffer with, Him, that we may 
be also glorified together." The one experience must 
be there, or it is impossible to have the other. There 
must be culture or there can be no fruition. There 
must be the cross or there never can be the crown. 

Two questions press themselves for you and me to 
ask ourselves : Are we children ? What are the evi- 
dences ? This is a question in which we cannot afford 
to deal with ourselves lightly, or after the manner of 
dissemblers with God. We need to take heed how we 
stand. Suppose the light within us should be darkness, 
what we believe to be of the Spirit should only after all 
be of the flesh. And then, if we are children at all, to 
what extent are we children ? What is the degree of 
our heritage ? What treasure, how much of an estate, 
have we reserved upon the shores of immortality ? How 
much do we desire a treasure in heaven. We go to 
great pains, run great risks, to make estates upon earth. 
What pains are we taking, what risks are we running 



230 SERMONS. 

to make a great estate in heaven? There are chances 
about our estates here below. We may inherit some- 
body's estate, or marry an estate, but there are chances 
of losing them too, and the certainty of leaving them. 
But there are no chances about that heavenly estate. 
It is absolutely certain, "if we are children.'' That 
inheritance belongeth not to another and shall never be 
taken from us. And then, I reckon as Paul reckoned : 
cost what it may, the sufferings of this present time, 
are not to be compared with the glory to be revealed. 

What is the little star that trembles in the water at 
night-time compared with the great world that rolls in 
space ? What is a moment compared with all time, or 
all time compared with an endless eternity ? The hire 
is worth the labor. The day will soon be spent. Let 
us suffer with Christ, that we may be glorified with 
Him. 



RELIGION AVERSE TO SELFISHNESS. 

Matthew 20 : 13. — But He answered one of them and said — "Friend, I do 
thee no wrong, didst not thou agree with me for a penny?" 

This is part of the parable of the laborers in the 
vineyard, which constitutes our Gospel for the day. 
This parable has been the subject of many commen- 
taries, and is perhaps yet far from being understood. 
I shall not undertake to exhaust it. I shall draw from 
it some things that are certainly in it, things that are 
certainly true. 



RELIGION AVERSE TO SELFISHNESS. 



231 



The parable cannot be understood unless we take it 
in direct connection with much of the chapter preceding 
it. A young man came to Christ and asked Him what 
he must do that he might have eternal life. Jesus said 
to him. " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com- 
mandments." The young man replied — " All these have 
I kept from my youth, what lack I yet ?" Jesus said, 
" If thou wilt be perfect, sell that thou hast, give to the 
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come 
and follow me." But the young man hearing that, went 
away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then 
the Master, commenting upon the fact, reflecting, as it 
were, aloud, said to His disciples — "Verily, a rich man 
shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." " Who, 
then," they exclaimed in great earnestness, " who then 
can be saved ?" You see what had been the drift of 
their mind — what caused their alarm. Peter, taking the 
lead as usual, but speaking for all the rest, said — " Be- 
hold, we have forsaken all and followed thee, what 
therefore shall we have ?" This whole parable is an an- 
swer to that question, " what therefore shall we have ?" 
Christ said — " Ye which have followed me, in the regen- 
eration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of 
His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging 
the twelve tribes of Israel, and every one that has for- 
saken houses or brethren, or sisters or father or mother, 
or wife or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall 
receive one hundredfold and shall receive everlasting 
life. Only beware of your estimates, 'for many that 
are first shall be last, and the last shall be first,' as this 
young man, having much, and highly esteemed among 
men, is still not fit for the kingdom of God. There are 
no thrones nor crowns, nor riches such as you are think- 



232 



SERMONS. 



ing of. Such as are^ are not derived through any such 
spirit as that you have just manifested. I must try to 
explain it to you, therefore listen to a parable." 

It is evident, not only from the question Peter asked 
on this occasion, but also from incidents recorded in 
other parts of the Gospel, that the spirit which actuated 
the Apostles at this time was that of selfishness. If 
they had left anything, it amounted to little, and they 
had not so much left it as bartered it away. They left 
little in the expectation of much. It was desire after 
gain, not mental nor moral, not addition to their true 
being, but augmentation of the mere signs of being. 
They wanted money, honor, position— not life, only the 
trappings of life, the place of prime ministers in the 
kingdom, the right hand and left hand of Christ. They 
were not one whit better than the young man whose 
action occasioned Peter's inquiry. If he had kept the 
commandments, a thing which very evidently he had 
not done ; but if he had tried in his lame, blind way, 
why had he kept them ? not from any love of the com- 
mandments, not from any love at all, but from fear. If 
Peter were following Christ it was evidently from no 
desire of true service to the Master, from no wise appre- 
ciation of the kingdom of heaven ; it was out of a spirit 
which destroyed all true heaven, forfeited it in him, 
made it impossible that he should ever attain the pure 
glory which is in God and with God. The kingdom of 
heaven is so constituted that the idea of self is in every 
form and degree excluded. He who works for heaven 
just simply to get heaven, loses the true heaven; he 
who would gain the true heaven, must work just as if 
it were already his, the whole kingdom ; he must re- 
joice in every gain it makes, as if that gain were his ; he 



RELIGION AVERSE TO SELFISHNESS. 233 

must work without even hoping for reward, satisfied 
with the work itself. To do that is to be heavenly ; to 
be heavenly is to have the true heaven, and the greater 
includes all the less. He who hath that, is God's 
chosen — chosen for the crowns and thrones and glories 
that are eternal. 

This thought, from the very poverty of language, is 
extremely difficult to express. The principle that per- 
vades it, the law that underlies it, is this : every soul 
shall have exactly that it works for— the bargain with 
nature shall be kept to a mite. 

God and man do sustain relations toward each other 
somewhat resembling those existing between the owner 
of a vineyard and a day laborer. All things in nature 
are but supplementary to each other. Capital is as 
dependent upon labor as labor upon capital. God wants 
us, as we want God. The Creator hath a purpose in this 
creation. Man must execute this purpose, his part of it, 
at any rate. Work is. an absolute necessity for man. 
I do not speak now in' any economic sense, that work is 
the means by which man must earn his bread, but in that 
broader sense, that all man's faculties fit him for work. 
He is a working being. The cruelest of all work would 
be to have no work to do. It is a relief to him to work ; 
without that, his being would be a blur. God wants 
the work done ; man wants the work to do. There 
you have the householder and the laborers. 

God never forgets His work. He is constantly going 
out at every period of this our earthly day to call men 
to their work. He deals directly with us Himself. 
Every man has to deal immediately with the great all- 
o a ner. 

Then the whole work of God on earth is a unit. It 



234 



SERMONS. 



is for the sake of economy divided up into various de- 
partments and called by different names. But every 
part is essential ; one part is as sacred as another. 
No work has more merit in itself than another. It is 
not the work which sanctifies the laborer, but the la- 
borer which sanctifies the work, if it is sanctified at all. 
This is a truth we are far from having learned ; a truth 
we must learn before we can begin to be heavenly, before 
we can be contented in life and make our life a service 
to our fellow men. and so a glory to our God. But all 
tvorJc is not equally easy. One demands more exertion 
than another: one hath advantages of comfort over 
another : one is for a longer period than another ; one 
is burdened with weightier responsibilities than another; 
all this you have in the parable under the expression of 
the different hours at which the laborers were em- 
ployed, the bearing the burden and heat of the day. 
We must remember the Lord is answering Peter. It 
was he that had murmured. He was called to a life of 
privation. He was then entering upon the burden and 
heat of the day. His service was to be an arduous 
service. The labor which is of the mind — which in- 
volves sacred responsibility — high trust — is, beyond all 
question — the hardest, man is called to perform, and 
very often it involves a smaller remuneration than any 
other. It has often so happened. They upon whom it 
has devolved have not generally been the men to murmur 
as Peter did on this occasion, but as Peter did not after- 
wards when he understood the law of the heavenly 
kingdom. He learned to count it joy that he could 
suffer for the name of Christ. Yea, it is their glory to- 
day that they did bear the burden and heat of the day. 
Because they did glory in it, and count not their lives 



RELIGION AVERSE TO SELFISHNESS. 235 

dear to themselves — they are God's chosen, sitting upon 
thrones, in true glory. This calling, however, at differ- 
ent hours might express another thing. Sometimes 
men pass much of their lives before they learn that they 
have any work to do ; they go through life getting their 
bread, working in all respects mechanically, as ants 
work, as spielers work, merely filling up the time. At 
the eleventh hour, as it were, they seem to hear a voice 
from God calling them to have a motive- -to do His 
work— to secure some sort of a reward. Generally 
they are persons who have been making themselves 
comfortable all their life — at last they only enter into 
other men's labors, and that under the easiest possible 
circumstances; still, no matter when men come, what 
work they do, the real question is, What do they work 
for ? Whatever that be, in every case, they shall have 
it. If for hire of any sort, the wages shall be paid. 
Observe, the Saviour is merely expressing the law of 
the thing, whether for this world or the world to come. 
He does not mean to say that our earthly penny is to 
go with us into the hereafter, but he means to say ex- 
actly what we work for, we shall have. That is the 
very point. Earthly appearances have nothing to clo 
with heavenly realties. " There are first that shall be 
last." 

Now, the parable said to Peter, what are you work- 
ing for ? What it said to him, it says to us, What are 
you working for ? What is your ideal ? Your hope of 
glory, the reward that you want? Some of us possibly 
are not working at all, i. e., in any high, holy sense, in 
the sense of response to the divine call. We are fulfill- 
ing our instincts, executing necessity. But that is not 
work for a rational being. It is drudgery, slavery. No 



236 



SERMONS, 



wonder, when men look at just that, they talk about the 
"curse of labor." Still, the law is good even there also. 
If you work for food and raiment, you shall have it. 
God is good for your wages. You shall be clothed in 
purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day, 
if that is all you care for. But if that is all, then you 
shall have nothing else— not that God does not wish 
you to have anything else, but that by the laws of the 
kingdom, that is all you can have. " How hardly shall 
they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
It is not the riches that keep them out, but they them- 
selves will seek nothing else. Every ideal that a man 
sets up in his heart has a blinding effect upon him rela- 
tive to all other objects ; anything a man sets his heart 
upon absorbs his being. Riches do this more than any 
other thing, both directly and indirectly. They provide 
the means of pandering to the flesh. They put a man 
in a position to do a thing from a point of condescen- 
sion which engenders pride. They bring men kneeling 
around us and build dead, solid walls across every ave- 
nue of truth. Some wise man said : truth is that thing, 
princes never hear. That is the danger of riches. They 
cover the most dangerous position a man can occupy 
upon earth. Men work fearfully hard to get them — 
still harder sometimes to keep them. 

Still, this does not exactly reach the point. Riches^ 
talent, skill, any of these accessories of life, are not our- 
selves, they are only our tools to work with. They de- 
termine for us when we shall work, what kind of work 
we are to do. One man may use talent to as little pur- 
pose as another may use money. Indeed, this is our 
way in this world. This is the cause of so much strife 
and unrest upon earth. All seek their own, not the 



RELIGION AVERSE TO SELFISHNESS. 237 

things that be of Gocl. With whatever tools we have, 
we look out upon life, not with the inquiry where will 
they accomplish most good ? hut, where will they bring 
us the largest worldly profit ? how can we turn them to 
the best account for ourselves ? Hence it is, that some 
callings in life become deserted to a considerable extent ; 
the work of the ministry for one. There has been much 
said in these latter years of the great discouragements 
existing to repel young men from the ministry. The 
pay is so small — the influence not now so great as for- 
merly. All very true. But why is the influence not 
so great? Partly because men have grown, till the 
clergy no longer sustain the same relative position. In 
that, none should glory more than the clergy themselves. 
But also partly because the church has so many offices 
of dignity, so much in herself that is not of the spirit 
of Christ — so much that is of the earth earthy, and out 
of this very spirit the Lord is condemning in Peter — 
that the general instinct no longer leans toward her as 
once it did. We do not find the church has most suc- 
cess where the remunerations are largest. It is pre- 
cisely the reverse, And this shows us that the thing 
to be worked for is always something independent of, 
and aside from, any mere personal profit. There is an 
element called the glory of God, which is another term 
for human good, the sole design and end of this whole 
vineyard which is to be sought — which sought exclusively 
by us makes us chosen, makes us of such as keep up 
the blessed kingdom above. This spirit should be the 
life of all our work upon earth. Then it would not be 
difficult to live. The lesser life would be included in 
the higher. We should truly enjoy the life that now is. 
But, suppose we work for money and all that money 



238 



SERMONS. 



can buy us — suppose I set my heart upon position, upon 
making what is called a mark in life — I shall succeed. 
Sad marks we make of them, too. I do not say we 
shall succeed up to the measure of our coveting ; we 
shall succeed only up to the measure of our ability — 
that is another expression for the measure of our de- 
serving — the whole investment considered. But with 
any such spirit we shall never succeed. If we obtain the 
penny we started for, somebody will have gained an- 
other penny — somebody less deserving than we, accord- 
ing to our estimates, and that will take all the satisfac- 
tion out of the penny we have secured. Selfishness 
never can be satisfied. A throne, a crown, a Papacy, 
would not have satisfied Peter, with Peter's spirit. I 
may rise to the highest office in my profession — I may 
attain to the most extensive influence — but, if that be 
all, there will be no blessedness about it. Another 
office will be better and another influence more extend- 
ed than mine, and that will destroy office and influence 
for me. Wolsey found all his honors worse than thorns, 
and if you had a kingdom you cared anything about, 
you would not choose Wolsey to be its prime minister ; 
no, nor a Pope, nor any other of the firstlings of this 
human herd. There are first that shall be last. If the 
eye be selfish, the whole being will be full of darkness. 
You would look along the by-ways of time and select 
such men as Paul, such men as IIuss, such men as were 
like Christ, who could give life, if only the kingdom 
might prosper. You see how it is that whoso giveth 
life, secures life — whoso loses life, finds it. Only he 
who works on, never thinking of what he is to get, ob- 
tains the place of the chosen. They that have heaven 
in them, work, but not for hire ; God has made them 



RELIGION AVERSE TO SELFISHNESS. 



239 



sons, not hired servants. They never stand idle, saying 
no man hath hired us. Observe, the Saviour does not 
say that either of those who received the penny was 
God's chosen. They all got what they worked for, that 
is all. Yon shall get exactly the "kingdom of heaven " 
you work for. The kingdom of heaven is not wages. 
It is result ; it is reward ; that which follows is conse- 
quent upon life. I may become a hermit — I may keep 
every fast day or saint's day — I may give my body to 
be burned ; but there is no connection between the glory 
hereafter and a mere life of hardship here. "Friend, I 
do thee no wrong ; take that is thine and go thy way." 
I cannot buy heaven, nor bribe it. I can make it, that 
is all. My heaven I have here ; I carry with me. I 
go only to my own place. When I can stand like Eli- 
jah, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, like Daniel, and feel the 
weight of the kingdom upon me, as if it were my own, 
I am fit to be trusted — I shall have a throne. There is 
nothing in human language of greater sublimity than 
those passages, like that of the prophet Daniel — " 
Lord, hear — Lord, hearken and clo ; defer not, for 
thine oivn sake, my God ; for thy city and thy people 
are called by thy name." It is thy glory that is at 
stake. Blot me out — blot us all out — but oh, let not 
thy name be reproached. After Christ had been lifted 
up, Peter saw that. You would not have trusted Peter 
when he asked that question, but you would trust him 
now. Y r ou see in him and his fellow Apostles, that they 
were afterwards fit to sit upon thrones, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel. They could leave father and 
mother, and wife and children, and house and land, for 
the kingdom of heaven's sake. They have received a 
thousandfold more in this life, and in that upper world 



240 



SERMONS. 



glory and honor everlasting. If you would have heaven 
hereafter, you must think whether you are worthy of it 
now. They who are to be chosen, are they who would 
do just the same heavenly work now, even if there were 
no heaven hereafter. They would do it, because their 
work is heaven. 

You ask me, if I think there are any such people upon 
earth to-day? Whoever asks that question, in asking 
it, gives his own answer to it, i. e., tells us what he 
thinks about it. Of some things upon earth, we have 
to form our estimates out of what is in ourselves. The 
skeptic does not believe in piety. Very well, he only 
proclaims he has none. The -misanthrope does not be- 
lieve in love ; he only says he has none, that is all. 
Some men believe all men are selfish • they only pro- 
claim the}" are simply selfish themselves. We do not 
remember this enough when we hear people express 
their opinions. A man's opinions on moral subjects are 
merely the lining out of his own heart. If you do not 
believe there are people working for God's kingdom, 
over and above the little dail} r penny they are receiving, 
you are yourself to be pitied. That is one of our great 
wants, a firmer belief in virtue and true holiness. It 
would itself attest that there is virtue and true holiness. 
But possibly ail of us, upon looking into our hearts, feel 
there is not the singleness of eye we ought to have. 
That is unquestionably true. We need to define what 
we are working for, what our idea, or hope of heaven is. 
Is your heart out there in the world upon any throne, 
or bubble, or penny of any sort? Then there is no 
heaven for you. Is your heart set upon rest, idleness, 
nothing to care about ? Then you might get it, but it 
will not be much of a heaven. Thoush heaven is often 



THE VINEYARD. 



241 



spoken of in the Bible in negative terms, take notice of 
the kind of negatives it uses — " There is no more sor- 
row, no more sighing." They imply that everything 
there is active. The positive keeps away the negative. 
Our hope, if a true one, will be full of all activities. 
Knowledge, love, virtue, the mysteries of creation, the 
spheres of angels, the service of saints, anything, all that 
can keep up, work out God's own economy, establish 
the divine purpose, conform to the eternal glory. I 
think the highest idea of heaven the human mind can 
reach, is the idea of service. God's agreement with us 
is, what we work for, whatsoever is right, according to 
the nature of things. If our selfishness is not satisfied, 
still we shall not be able to accuse God. " Didst thou 
not agree with me for a penny ?" , If Christ within us is 
our hope of glory, then only can we enter into the joy 
of our Lord. 



THE VINEYARD. 

Luke 20 : 15, 19. — So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. 
What therefore shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them ? He shall come 
and destroy these husbandmen and shall give the vineyard to others, and when 
they heard it, they said, God forbid. And He beheld them and said — What 
is this then that is written, the stone which the builders rejected the same 
is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone, 
shall be broken ,- but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to pow- 
der. And the chief priests and the scribes, the same hour sought to lay 
hands on Him, and they feared the people : for they perceived that He had 
spoken this parable against them. 

I cannot, of course, direct your attention to every 
thought contained in this Scripture. There is enough 

31 



242 



SERMONS. 



in it for many sermons. But there are a few general 
thoughts which pervade, the whole. Indeed, this entire 
chapter, while it touches upon several distinct subjects, 
at the same time conveys one general impression, the 
unwisdom of the Jeivs in failing to comprehend the respon- 
sibility of life ; and suggests one general thought, the 
danger tve are in of deceiving ourselves. 

" All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the 
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works." This is the purpose, object, or end of 
all Scripture. Our church, above all other branches of 
the church universal, seems to have contemplated this 
idea, in that she appointed so large a portion of God's 
word to be given us on all occasions of public worship. 
It is especially provided that on all Sunday mornings 
the Second Lessons shall be chiefly, almost exclusively, 
from the four Gospels — so that we shall have constantly 
before us the words of Christ himself. This is the glory 
of our church,. It was the glory of the reformation, that 
it liberated the Scriptures — gave to man, for whom it 
was intended, the message God had sent. Jesus Christ 
delivered His message, not exclusively, not chiefly, to 
the learned and so-called wise, but to the common peo- 
ple. The common people not only heard Him, but 
heard Him gladly. Woe is to us when we cannot hear 
Him. Woe is to us, w T hen we do not hear Him gladly. 
Possibly, the race would still hear Him gladly, if we 
could hear Rim and not our commentaries upon Him. It 
is one thing to have the Scriptures and another thing to 
make them profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
rection, for instruction in righteousness. The Jews used 
not so the Old Testament. The Christians have not 



THE VINEYARD. 



243 



always so used the New Testament. We like certain 
doctrines, but we like not reproof, nor correction, nor in- 
struction in righteousness. When, in order to learn the 
meaning of a Scripture, I resort to the commentators, 
they tell me something about the grammar and construc- 
tion of the language — something about the geography 
of the holy land — something of the history of the Jews ; 
all well enough, and true enough, so far as it goes ; but 
I can get little help toward the one object I have, of 
rinding out what that Scripture has to do with me, with 
the times I live in. When Jesus spake, He dwelt upon 
living themes. We must remember that, in order to 
understand the hatred the Jews had toward Him. The 
Scribes were living things ; the Pharisees, everybody 
knew who they were. The topics he discussed had im- 
mediate reference to existing errors, parties and issues. 
Every word He uttered fell point-blank upon one or 
other of tnese. The glory of all He uttered is, that 
while the occasion of it was temporary and local, the 
cause or origin of it was in the depths of eternal wisdom, 
and the application of it to every place — to all time. 
In order therefore to make the application of them God 
intended, we must put them not into grammar nor his- 
tory but into the questions or issues that live around 
us, and in which we ought to live ; with reference to 
which, whether we choose or not, God will hold us re- 
sponsible. The principles of Jesus are for life and the 
living; otherwise, our commentaries are useless — our 
preaching is but beating the air. 

God hath a vineyard. What is that vineyard ? You 
know that this expression is but a figure, and yet, such 
is language, these figures are the highest expressions .to 
which we can attain. A vineyard, a garden, is a place 



2U 



SERMONS. 



cut off frpm nature's domain for purposes of high and 
special culture. It does not condemn, nor abandon all 
the rest of nature. That is good enough so far as it • 
goes, but the garden is intended to go further and sup- 
ply what nature, left to herself, could not produce. A 
garden implies, to begin with, a piece of ground fenced 
about, then trees and plants, each of specific value, for 
fruit or flower. It implies in itself a better being than 
is anywhere else in nature, and that better being meets 
or accomplishes the object of its being, the benefit or 
glory of its owner. God's vineyard is, in a broad sense, 
this human race. He has fenced it about by barriers 
that cannot be passed. It is His peculiar delight. In 
a restricted sense this vineyard is the better part, or a 
part of the human race, separated from the rest and 
called His church. The Jews were such a vineyard. 
The Christian nations now are such a vineyard. To ex- 
tend the figure somewhat, a garden implies a* gardener. 
The human race is the garden, the church is the garden- 
er. Christians are the husbandmen. I think, God ex- 
pected the Jews to be the blessing of nations. At any 
rate He expects it of Christians. There you have the 
ground and the husbandmen, What are the plants and 
fruits, that ground and those husbandmen, are to pro- 
duce ? The garden is to produce that which is meet for 
the owner's use — that which is coincident with the 
wants of his nature. God is a moral and spiritual intelli- 
gence ; his garden must produce that which is in harmony 
with such a nature — truth, love and wisdom, faith, hope 
and charity, This does not exclude any good thing, 
but it does not put art and science, architecture and 
music, for religion. Every garden has its walks, with 
their flower borders ; every garden has its arbors ; every 



THE VINEYARD. 



245 



garden has even its ornamental trees. It does not ex- 
elude the exercise of taste. But what would that gar- 
den be worth which had in it nothing else ? The gar- 
dener himself would starve. Then the garden is not to 
turn the gardener into a creature of pomp and import- 
ance. It is true, he is to live by the garden, but he is 
to live by what he makes the garden produce, His 
nature is the same as that of Him who owns the garden 
and employs the gardener. Man can only live by vir- 
tue and wisdom. The gardener's only business is to 
make the garden productive, to gather in the fruits, to 
roll in the produce. He is a workman,. For him to put 
on airs, to sit about in the arbors, to pay exclusive at- 
tention to his clothes, to the fences, to the mere acci- 
dents and incidentals — to set himself up in claims which 
cause the owner to be forgotten — the interests and ob- 
jects of the owner to be neglected — to claim the garden 
as his own, for the one sole purpose of keeping him re- 
spectable, what sort of a gardener could he be ? But 
; suppose he let weeds and thorns, vice and moral death, 
grow where truth and holiness ought to be. What 
should we say of such a gardener ? This the Jews did, 
They let all the trees God planted die ; they set up to 
be owners ; they rilled the garden with nightshade and 
upas. They said : " We are delivered to do all these 
things." The widow, the orphan, the poor, the hire- 
ling, though God's children, were starving, they forbade 
anybody to touch the fence, and under penalty of death 
forbade all attempts at God's having any other garden. 
God never gave up His vineyard— He gave it to other 
husbandmen. Have we Christians in the aggregate 
done any better with it ? Now, in any language, espe- 
cially in that of figures, we are liable to confine our- 



2-46 SERMONS. 

selves to the letter, and make that a real hindrance 
which was intended as a help. God's garden ground is 
the human race. His fences are not anything that we 
can build, or patch and mend. They are in the nature 
of things, and grow by laws of their own being. Our 
separation is that into which other creatures cannot 
pass. The lower orders of nature cannot invade our 
dominion. Then He is always Himself the overseer. 
He knows all that is going on, and He will not have 
anything wrong go on without a check. He employs his 
agents. Who are they ? Not exclusively those who 
claim to have been sent and hold their commission in 
their hand. God is forever renewing his agents. They 
come but with one commission. That is not upon parch- 
ment. Jesus Christ did not come with two tables of stone. 
You perceive how childish we are in confining God to 
artificial means and ends — tying the Infinite to that 
which is finite. .Ability to do anything is Goal's commis- 
sion to do it. That is all the authority that ever will be 
given, and wherever it is given, in any shape, woe is 
unto him to whom it is given in vain. Whether it be 
brains, or money, or skill, or social position, woe is unto 
him who exercises it not, as a loan from God. We are 
our brother's keeper — mysterious as it is. In his well- 
being we secure our own. 

Inability never can have a commission. He is a gar- 
dener who makes a garden what a garden should be, 
call him by what name you will. Who makes the best 
returns to God from His garden, is the gardener Gocl 
wants — that is the husbandman to whom God gives the 
vineyard. Whoever is in the position and makes not 
the return that God wants, him will Gocl destroy. 
Sooner or later, by laws of His own, God's tables will 



THE VINEYARD. 247 

turn. The nest may "be made in a throne, but God can 
reach it. Its foundations shall be upheaved. "By 
what authority cloest thou these things," said the Jews 
to Christ. By the same authority John the Baptist did 
his mighty works. If you cannot see it, it would be 
time lost to explain it to you. God is always sending 
this new life, this real authority into His vineyard. It 
conies with no exclusive claims. It asks but to labor 
or to die. But it does not die. That to the men with 
a parchment commission is the only trouble. Those 
whom God sends, they live. Their spirits hover about 
the garden. They bless the trees, and cause the fruit 
to be brought forth that God wants, and keep the chil- 
dren of God alive. 

Between the real and the unreal gardeners — between 
the actual and the apparent — there has ever been a con- 
flict. Now, this is one special point which. I wish you 
as men of God to get. What are the characteristics of 
the respective sides ? How are we to tell one side from 
the other, so as to know where we are, or where we 
ought to be ? We read in the eighth chapter of first of 
Kings, one of the most solemn chapters contained in the 
Old Testament. Solomon approaches the consecration 
of the greatest temple that ever adorned this planet. 
The circumstances of the origin and growth of that tem- 
ple are peculiar. David could not build it because his 
hands were impure. It had to go up without noise, or 
confusion, or boasting. Every part had to be prepared 
just where providence had put it, and then fit into its 
place when it reached the Sacred Mount. Did God in- 
tend to dwell in a temple made with hands ? Did He 
care anything for a toy ? That was the very difficulty. 
Some men thought that temple was not a toy ; but a 



248 SERMONS. 

thing of intrinsic value in itself— a thing in which God 
delighted. Having that, all varieties of ceremonial and 
pantomime grew up in connection with it— all these va- 
rieties became ends and objects in themselves. You 
see the perversion there— the passing into the shadow 
that which God put only in the reality. Other men saw 
they were merely diagrams, or figures by which God 
would teach us high truth ; just as, in geometry, we 
draw a figure on a board, which may be done better or 
worse ; but whether better or worse, of no account pro- 
vided we get the truth that figure helps us to demon- 
strate. That is all that any temples, or any ceremonials, 
can ever subserve. God's great temple is in man, in 
each individual, in humanity. " The kingdom of heaven 
is within you? Its origin must be in all purity. Every 
part of it must be a free-will offering. As that temple 
went up upon Mount Moriah, God wants His spiritual 
temple of truth, of virtue, of all grace, prosperity and 
happiness, to go up in man. As the temple appeared, 
rose as a fact, so God wants holiness, moral beauty, hu- 
man well-being to appear in mankind, rise as a fact, be 
a grand existence, the glory of all lands, to the exclu- 
sion of everything that belongs to the kingdom of the 
world, Satan and death. The great temple is man at 
last* The glory of it is moral and spiritual culture. 
On that rests and will forever rest the Shechinah of 
God's presence. There has been our fatal mistake, to 
multiply and build up agencies other than man, when 
there can be but one agent, man himself. See the real 
temple, man ; the real Shechinah, truth and virtue. The 
ostensible agents see only the temple on the Mount, the 
cloud inside, the two tables, the pomp and ceremonial 
attendant. Here you have the two sides that through 



THE VINEYARD. 



249 



all ages have been in contention — the sign, the thing 
signified. The parchment power has through all ages 
persecuted those who had the real commission. He 
who is born after the flesh persecutes him who is born 
after the spirit. The priests of Baal — which is only the 
culmination of error and ceremonial — -the priests of Baal 
persecuted Elijah, who has to flee to the ravens and the 
caves. Isaiah preaches, that God requires us to do 
judgment, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, 
and they saw him asunder, perceiving that he speaks 
against them, and supposing that to get rid of him is to 
get rid of all unwisdom. Jeremiah proclaims to Ahab 
and the priests, that God wants vice punished, and the 
poor protected, and virtue built up as a sacrifice above 
all others, and they put him in a filthy cave, and sub- 
ject him to bitterest ignominy. Last of all, God sends 
His own Son, and Him they persecute; He walks in 
benevolence and love and wisdom ; He tells them God's 
requirements, pleads with man and for man, and Him 
they nail to a cross, and put Him to an open shame. He 
is the Heir. For Him God is having the great temple 
built, and God will not have Him cast out or killed, and 
there you have the two sides. They are as plain as the 
night from the day, the living from the dead. The one 
stands for that which is outward, because it has been. 
The other stands for that which is inward, because it 
ought to be — because it is that by which alone even the 
outward can stand. These two principles, or rather the 
right upon the one side and the wrong upon the other, 
have marked the contests of the ages, and are struggling 
to-day throughout the length and breadth of human so- 
ciety. You can tell on which side you are, if you wish 
to tell, as well as you tell whether you are awake or 



250 



SERMONS. 



asleep. Ceremony and grandeur, that is outward! It 
is childish. It is unworthy of man as an object of at- 
tainment. It takes the world into Judaism — into dis- 
aster and dark night. It fills the world with ignorance, 
poverty, violence, and all insecurity. It prostrates every 
agency of good, and expels God from His place in the 
human heart. Are there not indications that our times 
have fallen upon that side. Irrespective of churches, 
parties, or sects, have we not, as a race, cultivated the 
apparent at the expense of the real ; and if so, to what- 
ever party we belong, are we not self-deceived, and so 
in danger of being lost ? No temple we can build 
can equal the temple on Mount Moriah. The old 
Jews, three thousand years ago, in that achievement 
distanced all time. God made it grand, that we might 
never rival it, and took it away to tell us that with all 
its grandeur it was still nothing. What we want to-day, 
and God wants every day, is man. You cannot build 
him of gold or silver or wood or hay or stubble. You 
must build him of the " glory and virtue " that was in 
Christ Jesus, or you build him not at all. St. Sophia 
and St. Peter's are the grandest structures upon earth, 
and both of them are temples of idolatry — temples that 
degrade man, and for that reason they cannot please 
God. That which makes a man better in all his condi- 
tion, which fills him with thought, which makes him a 
higher and nobler being, that glorifies God. " The 
works I do," said Christ, they testify of me. The works 
anything or anybody does, they testify of it, or him. 
Peace on earth and good will among men, is all God 
wants, because it is all we want. " Believe me for the 
very works' sake," said Christ. His works made Him 
of no reputation, i. e., they did not puff Him up before 



THE VINEYARD. 



251 



men. but made Him servant of all. They, however, 
carried Him to the cross. He too, as to all God's laws 
He was subject — He too, fell upon that stone, and was 
broken. 

This brings us to those other characteristics of these 
respective sides which make them still more easily to be 
distinguished. In this world of outward things, and out 
of which the children gf God are to rise ; in this world 
the parchment is first in power. The Scribes and 
Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. The succession is there. 
Nobody disputes it. The question is as to its value, 
whether the real is combined with the ostensible. So 
long as it is, men do not raise the question ; but when 
error begins, the right begins to struggle with the per- 
version of right. It is at first a battle of desperation. 
The one defenceless head is stricken off. A young dam- 
sel, in the smile of power, ask for it. It is brought in a 
charger. A mere dance of the world cuts off the head 
of the children of Gocl. That seems to end the contest. 
Two more grow in its place. They protest, and are cast 
into prison, or starve to death. They go. Four rise 
in their place, and so each instalment falls upon the 
stone — that sure thing God has fixed — and are broken. 
The children of God sutler persecution. Still out of it, 
it would appear by means of it, new agents spring up. 
John keeps rising from the dead. Stocks in the market- 
place, prisons, stakes, inquisitions, reproach, slander, 
ignominy, cold shoulders, insinuations, against all, they 
grow. They claim attention by very numbers. The 
stone begins to turn. The right becomes so rea- 
sonable — the wrong so palpable. The parchment itself 
take the alarm — " Ah," they say, " God forbid." Yes, 
but it is too late, Gocl does not forbid. Armies begin 



252 



SERMONS. 



to gather ; a trench is dug around the sacred citadel ; 
pestilence, famine, war, do their work. They become 
enemies of destruction to each other. The stone falls 
and grinds them to powder. There is weeping and 
wailing ; God's own children grieve over them ; but it 
is too late. Even upon earth we have the shadow 
of the condition of those who have lived at their ease 
and been unfaithful to their trusts, and gone to their 
reward. That other world is not wholly shut out — if 
you have only the vision that can pierce the mists that 
hang between. God destroys them that hate Him — 
all that work against Him. The truth at last conquers. 
But thus victory is by the cross, and you always tell 
the right side by telling on which side the real cross is. 
If you have to bear the reproaches of many people, you 
may be broken ; but God is with you. But if you 
live to reproach, and are on the parchment side, beware 
of the stone that will fall— of the dreadful day that is 
to come. 

Now. brethren, God has committed this vineyard to 
you and me. I am not speaking to you now as a mem- 
ber of the church or not a member. I am not speaking 
to you with reference to any church, but merely with 
reference to these two sides- — God's side or not God's 
side. You are a member of the church ; you are born 
in it. You have the privileges and hopes of the Gospel. 
You have also the responsibilities, God will not deal with 
us according to any artificial distinctions of ours, but 
according to real laws of His own. No more devolves 
upon me with reference to the well-being of this vine- 
yard than upon you. Woe is unto me, if I deceive 
you. Woe is unto you if you are deceived. What- 
ever position, or no position, we assume, we must take 



THE VINEYARD. 



253 



the consequences. A no-worker is as responsible as a 
wrong-worker. We have the vineyard. What of it? 
Jesus sits to-day by His providence among us, and 
teaches us just as much as He did those who listened 
to Him that day in the temple of Jerusalem. These 
truths to some of us may seem trivial. I fear they do. 
Yet they brought Jesus here to claim the vineyard, 
They seem trivial, and yet these are the topics that took 
up the time and engaged the thoughts of the Son of 
God. They seem trivial, and yet by them alone man 
hath life. Do we perceive that He hath spoken any- 
thing against us ? How strange it is ; there is a feeling 
in us which takes the alarm the moment a reflection 
rises against us, or our ideas. The Scribes and Phari- 
sees perceived that He spake against them. What 
did they do ? " They sought to lay hands on Him," 
arrest him, stop Him. Was it wise ? The poet 
Burns says : " There's none ever feared that the truth 
should be heard but they whom the truth would indite." 
I think of those Jews to whom Jesus spake. They 
had opportunity to become wise, but they went on with 
their notions- — their opposition to wisdom — their sects — - 
their hopes. In the meantime all real unculture went 
on around them, too. They were complacent and com- 
fortable. They were responsible for the condition of 
the world around them, and did not know it ; and what 
I think we do not understand is, we Christians are 
responsible for the condition of the world around us, 
and do not know it. One by one they died. The last 
consolations of their faith were administered. The 
burial service was read over them, Eulogistic sermons 
were preached about them. Pictures of Heaven were 
drawn, and consoling hopes were entertained. In the 



254 



SERMONS. 



meantime where were the departed souls ? No voice 
broke in to tell. Yes, a voice did break in — God's 
voice broke in. It breaks across the ages. It says the 
publicans and harlots went into the kingdom before 
them. Where are those souls to-day ? Wherever they 
are, are they such that you and I wish to be with 
them ? 

I hear some of you say — " Do you not believe any 
Jew can be saved ?" Peter was a Jew, John was a Jew, 
Paul was a Jew — salvation is of the Jews. That is the 
point. Jew or Gentile, male or female, all that is noth- 
ing — which side are we on ? The young looking out 
upon life — the old looking back upon it — where stand 
we ? where have we stood ? where will we stand ? On 
the side longing and working for God's true glory in the 
true well-being of His children, or on the empty side of 
nothing to do, nothing to care, or else caring and doing 
only for a shadow, a name, as the Jews cared and did ? 
Men are everywhere telling us, the parallel between our 
times and those in which the Saviour lived is perfect. 
Metaphysical questions, like those of the Sadducees 
about the resurrection, are occupying our time. No- 
body seems to care for the vineyard, except to claim it. 
God grant, we be not judged by our claims. By our 
own record, to say nothing of its darker aspects, the 
world is full of mental recklessness, skepticism, rational- 
ism, scoffing, irreverence, worldly ambition, pride and 
pomp. The vineyard is full of weeds. Have we built 
that holy temple toward which our faces should turn in 
all our seekings from God ? Have we built that temple 
on which God's eyes are open day and night, of which 
He has said : "my name shall be there?" toward which, 
when the heaven is shut up, and there is famine and 



THE VINEYARD. 



255 



pestilence and mildew , and there is no rain from heaven 
of rich and precious blessing, we can turn and God will 
hear and forgive ? Is not the temple built, the temple 
of worldliness and selfishness, of sect and ism, which 
has shut out the rain and dispelled the blessing? 
Ah ! if it were only a play that we were playing ! If 
life were only not real, not earnest ! If there were only 
no God, no hereafter, no heaven, no hell ! if there were 
only no laws that are God's executors, and that hold us 
with a grasp as strong as God ! If we could only play, 
or quarrel, and then lie down to pleasant dreams ! But 
I am my brother's keeper; I have a vineyard, not mine; 
I must give account. I have a work to do, and but a 
short day in which to do it. That is the fearful mys- 
tery to me, that we so trifle with, ours elves — that we 
do not wish to hear the truth — that we know all we 
want to know, and just what we want to know — that 
we long not for an abundant entrance into the precious 
and deep things of God — that we do not know that the 
truth alone can make us free — that the freedom of per- 
fect truth is the only freedom we ought to desire. 

Brethren, I would point you to-day to Jesus. We 
have reached another Advent. The rapid procession of 
the seasons reminds us of the promise of his coming 
again. In, the signs of the times we seem to hear His 
approaching footfalls. Our work must be soon done, or 
never done. All voices conspire to tell us, we have a 
temple to build — a temple in us — a temple around us. 
We have a vineyard to keep, for the glory of God, for 
the well-being of man ! We cannot live to ourselves. 
Look around life — look upon man. Let us ask our- 
selves — What of the temple ? what of the vineyard ? 



256 



SERMONS. 



CHASTISEMENT A BLESSING. 

Proverbs 3: 11. 12. — My son, despise not thou the chastening of the 
Lord, neither be weary of His correction ; for whom the Lord loveth He 
correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." 

This thought had been uttered long ages before Solo- 
mon was born. Job said : " Behold, happy is the man 
whom God correcteth, therefore despise not thou the 
chastening of the Almighty." This was no conjecture 
of Job's. He could speak experimentally. When he 
says, " happy is the man," he does not mean the man 
felt happy under the correction — that it was in any de- 
gree pleasant. Such is not the nature ' of correction. 
The word generally translated "happy" in our Old Tes- 
tament, means " blessed" highfy favored. Very fortu- 
nate is the man whom God correcteth. In the darkness 
it required faith to see the light. In the bitterness, it 
could hardly seem possible it was the cup mingled of 
God. The tendency was to revolt — to consider God 
unjust — to wish to die, as Job had probably done. But 
he had worked the problem out, and found it was full 
of blessing. God teaches us by the experience of oth- 
ers. He had permitted Job to go through the fiery fur- 
nace, that he might be able to say to all passing through 
a similar experience, " Blessed is the man whom God 
correcteth, therefore despise not thou the chastening of 
the Almighty." 

David, too, before Solomon, had said, " Blessed is the 
man whom thou chasteneth, Lord, and teachest him 
out of thy law." But there had been some advance, in 
the time between Job and David. Both recognize God 
as a dispenser, the author of all providence. Job says, 



CHASTISEMENT A BLESSING. 



257 



" He maketh sore, and bindeth up ; He woundeth, and 
His hands make whole." " He shall deliver thee in six 
troubles — yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee." 
He felt the great All-Father hand was over him, guiding, 
shielding, delivering. But David touches a higher key. 
He says, "And teachest him out of thy law." Here is 
a purpose perceived — the instruction, edification of the 
sufferer ; to bring him back from error, to lift him up to 
knowledge, " That thou may est give him rest from the 
days of adversity" — that by understanding and wisdom 
he may be saved, where others would pass on and be 
punished. 

For a great many ages anything approaching what 
we call misfortune was regarded as a token of divine 
displeasure. When the race was in its infancy worldly 
prosperity was regarded as the highest evidence of 
divine favor. The removal of it, or the absence of it, 
indicated some great offence — some action which had 
kindled God's anger. This thought occurs often in the 
Old Testament. This was the argument of the friends 
of Job. They urged him to confess some secret trans- 
gression, and they thought him the greater sinner in 
that he persisted in asserting his innocence. Job was 
many removes ahead of his times. He saw that God's 
dealings with us were never retro-active. It is true 
that all providences, all events, have their antecedents. 
There is a chain of causes. Adversity does not arise 
out of the earth. Every experience, painful or plea- 
sant, is only a result. But when results are what we 
call disastrous, they are not because God is angry. 
They are often just the reverse, because He is loving. 
He wishes to correct, amend, teach us. Whilst their 
causes are in the past, their whole purpose is in the 



258 



SERMONS. 



future and the present. Men have allowed certain 
notions of punishment very much to distort their under- 
standing. Even the pains and penalties of our civil 
law ought not to have anything of desire merely to 
make the offender suffer, but only to amend him. No 
amount of pain can undo the past, but the past is atoned 
for so far as it can be, if it be only wholly past, aban- 
doned — if the once offender become the subject of true 
obedience. We lop off members from society, whose 
faculties, redeemed, would be of highest value. I have 
knowledge of a community to-day in which one of its 
most useful men was once a convict at Botany Bay. 
To be sure we act as we do from considerations of 
public safety ; but God aims always at redeeming. 
This is the force of every providence, reformation. 
There is no man upon earth but is an offender. God 
wants the very best of us to be still better, to rise ever 
more out of sense and time into spirit and eternity. He 
deals with all His children alike, but only the righteous 
know the meaning of His providence. It frequently 
happens that the best men are those who have the 
worst troubles. It is true all things come, as I have 
said, by natural causes. The unscrupulous, selfish man 
will acquire gain by all means, at any costs. He knows 
nothing of poverty. The wicked riot in luxury. They 
are lusty and strong. David said : " They come in no 
misfortune like other folk." But that is only part of 
the case. When their time comes, their end is swift 
and deep destruction. Follow ungodliness to its end, 
trace it through generations, and the woe is bitter. 
They are in misfortune all the time. Only they, and 
all who are blind as they, do not know it. As a 
general thing, we have not the opportunity of following 



CHASTISEMENT A BLESSING. 



259 



theni through. Our experience and observation can 
take us but over one generation. It is sometimes very 
profitable to sit clown beside the aged and listen to their 
rehearsal of men's antecedents, of their fathers. Men 
sink sometimes into obscurity, beneath the scorn of 
their fellows ; others as often from obscurity rise into 
honor and influence. To us it is often unaccountable ; 
sometimes it would appear as though God were not 
just. But God is just ; only we are ignorant. God 
writes up his justice not exclusively in private histories, 
where it cannot be read, but in public histories, where 
all men may read. The history of kings is peculiarly 
instructive. Charles I. was in many respects an inno- 
cent, well-meaning man. But what was the record of 
the house of Stuart ? The misfortunes of Charles were 
all the heritage his ancestors had laid up for him. 
Pride, prejudice, bigotry, folly, wrong, go down from 
father to son. They culminate sooner or later. It was 
the 'same thing with Louis XIV. And now to-day not 
a Bourbon sits upon any throne. Their name is " clean 
put out" — time it should be. All men feel and know 
there is justice in it; still, if it were possible, God 
had redeemed the Stuarts and Bourbons. All that 
we call the judgments that came, ought to have had that 
redeeming effect ; but the wicked learn nothing of 
God, and forget nothing of the devil. That in itself is 
a suggestion of the perpetuity of woe ; yet even still 
their judgments are intended for reformation. There 
is no other purpose in them. Gocl hath no delight in 
the death of the sinner. God would teach all men 
what it means to be wicked, that all men may learn 
what it means to be wise. What takes place in royal 
families, takes place in all families that play royalty — 



260 



SERMONS. 



only we cannot see the whole history, and perhaps it 
is as well not to unearth it. But, strange as facts may 
seem, the history is there. And if all the statistics 
were given, or even from such as we have, we might 
find that all wrong is the most expensive and foolish 
thing in which we can indulge. On the other hand, 
sometimes the fear of God, a scrupulous conscience, a 
high sense of integrity, will be the direct means of 
bringing about reverses. A just and honorable man 
will part with his last dollar to satisfy a just claim. 
What then ? Is God unkind ? Has God forgotten 
that man ? Is he unblessed ? Has he done wrong ? 
Nay, the very angels encamp about him, and glory 
in him, But for such men the world would have 
no soul. The fabric of higher being could not stand. 
God has revelations for that man's soul, and a 
niche in glory prepared for him, because he has 
some spiritual culture. God would give* him still 
more. Job was the only man to whom his trials 
could have been sent. They would have crushed any 
man whose heart was not stayed in God. He, and men 
like him, taught the world before Christ came, that 
soul was better than body ; that life was more than 
meat. When Christ had come, all men knew that the 
true glory was not in an outward condition ; that God 
had a heritage of grace and virtue, of knowledge and 
wisdom for which He wished to prepare His chil- 
dren. The righteous man's life is the ladder, the 
higher end of which is in Heaven; and, though his head 
rest upon a stone ; though he be unsheltered and alone, 
God's providences are angels ascending and descending 
in communion between him and God. 

fi< Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord," mur- 



CHASTISEMENT A BLESSING. 



261 



mur not, nor start aside. Fail not to learn the lesson, 
Blessed is the man who can understand that it is chas- 
tening, not punishment, not judgment. In the face of 
great trial, viewing God's dealings as punishments, we 
stand sometimes and ask what we have done, that trou- 
ble should come upon us ? We ought rather to ask, 
what have we not done ? What have we done that it 
should not come upon us ? Have we been serving God 
merely from fear, merely as a sort of insurance against 
distress ? Has our integrity been but a kind of bargain, 
a price we were to pay for a home by and by in heaven ? 
Verily, how sordid we are ! Very often, virtue, up- 
rightness, even religion itself, proceed more from fear 
than from any conviction that wisdom is the supremely 
best thing in the universe- — more from fear, than from a 
love of God because He is all-good. We have a general 
conception that this world is a very bad one, and that 
God has a better. We cannot stay here long, and we 
want to purchase a place above. But what sort of a 
place shall it be? God hath no hirelings. Virtue is 
her own reward. Christ said: "I go to prepare a place 
for you." Most certainly^ that would be a very uncom- 
fortable place for which we were not prepared. When 
the architect is building a stately structure, he prepares 
his place. Somewhere else he prepares every stone to 
meet just the place designed for it. It is dug out from 
the mass. It is tested and chiseled till it is ready. The 
mind of that architect presides ; his hand directs. Are 
we to be built as lively stones into the polished corners 
of the eternal temple, and yet not be polished and 
moulded as the eternal Architect determines ? Is there 
no architect ? There is a degree of excellence which we 
have not perceived—there are virtues and graces, in 



262 



SERMONS. 



higher degrees than any we have known, which our hea- 
venly places demand — we might say, which even the 
lowest heavenly places demand. There is one grace, 
without which we could have no place in heaven — the 
grace of humility, of thankfulness to God for any place 
however humble — the grace of implicit trustfulness in 
His superintending power, in His sleepless love. Ex- 
cept we become as little children, we cannot enter the 
kingdom. While it is the first grace in the kingdom, it 
is the last grace we learn upon earth, and would not 
learn it then, if God were not better to us than we know. 
We say we believe in Gocl. I sometimes think we do 
not believe in Him. We believe in human resources — 
in money and friendship — in respectability and credit — 
in comfort and ease — in our plans and wishes. We say 
we walk by faith. Under God's chastenings we wake 
up, and find we have been walking only by sight. So 
far as we had something else to trust to, that far we 
trusted God. When we have nothing else to rely upon, 
then our first impression is He has forsaken us. We 
call ourselves miserable sinners, and say we are not wor- 
thy of the least of His mercies ; but when His greater 
mercies are withdrawn, then we think there is some in- 
justice done us, and then we are miserable, not on ac- 
count of our sins, but because we no longer have what 
we have long been confessing we did not deserve. The 
truth is, the day of adversity, of woe, of darkness and 
bitterness, is the clay of mercy. It is mercy that brings 
us to know our true God — that brings us to know our 
true selves, a real faith, a divine trust. My observa- 
tions have convinced me of one thing, and that is, that 
there is little of real thankfulness anions men. If we 
wake up after a night in which many have perished with 



CHASTISEMENT A BLESSING. 



263 



cold, if we find our own abode not so comfortable as we 
would like it, our first emotion is not one of gratitude, 
that we are spared at all, that we have a shelter. It is 
an emotion of dissatisfaction, that we have not something 
better. There are many things we. do not know we 
want till we see somebody else have them. We never 
enjoy, in our anxiety to get something more enjoyable. 
We do not live ; we only anticipate a day in which we 
hope to live, and that day never comes ; or never would 
come, if God were not good. Of mind and heart and 
true soul, of that which is heavenly and glorious, there 
is little enough upon earth at best, and would be vastly 
less, if God were not more mindful of us than we are of 
ourselves. Prosperity, having things just as we want 
them, it puffs us with pride, clogs our being with con- 
tentment, rather with complacency. But Our Father 
knows what we do not know — knows a future He has 
for us — knows what we are, what we would sink into 
if left alone, what we might be under His correction, 
His teaching. He breaks up our plans, puts a fly in our 
ointment, a thorn in our pillow, takes the sugar out of 
our cup. Like the eagle, when she tears to pieces the 
nest of its little ones, that they might try their wings, 
He breaks up our ease, scatters our plans, drives us to 
apparent helplessness, that we might learn our higher 
powers, and prepare to meet our highest destiny. To 
ask what we have done that God should treat us thus, 
that is to lose the effect of His providence, to despise 
His chastening. To ask what He would have us learn, 
what height of wisdom He would have us scale, what 
place of service He would prepare us for ; that is to have 
confidence in our Father's wisdom, and to profit by His 
love. Suppose the boy who is sent away to school, 



264 SERMONS. 

upon missing his home comforts, his familiar ease, his 
father's face, should sit down and ask what- he had done 
to merit such a treatment. How could that boy aid his 
father's designs, or profit by his father s plans ? But 
suppose, instead, he sees the learning he ought to attain, 
the places of honor and profit his father contemplates 
for him. and applies his mind to the acquisition of the 
knowledge his father deems needful. How he honors 
his father and blesses himself! Shall we study for our 
children and God neglect us ? Shall our children hare 
confidence in us. and we no confidence in our Father ? 
Do we not indeed want faith ? Is God weaker than 
man? Do we believe what we say when we call our- 
selves His children ? Do we believe our own words 
when we say " He is about our bed. and about our 
paths, and spiest out all our ways :" that He is the 
Father Almighty. Is not the fact that He is Father, 
that we are sons, that He is Almighty, that He is about 
our path, a good reason why we should not despise 
His chastening? 

But Solomon adds : " Neither be weary of His cor- 
rection." This verily is a hard saying — "neither he 
weary? We can stand a little sickness — we can brave 
a short misfortune : but when it seems protracted ; 
when there is no prospect of releasement ; when our 
way is not likely to come to us. who would not be 
weary ? In which of us does patience have her perfect 
work ? When will humility and resignation attain 
perfection ? If we cannot do God's will here, how will 
we be able to do it by and by ? How do ive know Goers, 
will in heaven is going to he our will? How can it be, 
unless our will is God's will ? Till that is. do you see 
there is no heaven for us. " Neither be weary." I 



CHASTISEMENT A BLESSING. 



265 



could not obey that. I do not know of any of you that 
could do it. What a sense of need does that open 
within us — need of grace, of trust, of faith. That in 
itself is a reason why we should not be weary, because 
there is no end of our imperfection — no end of our 
unfitness for the kingdom. With all possible correction, 
there will be so much to learn. But there is another 
reason why we should not be weary. I have alluded 
to that law in nature by which the sins of the father are 
visited upon his children — even to the third and fourth 
generation. It is right and proper we should think our 
ancestors the purest and best of beings ; but, after all, 
w T hat do we know of them ? Was there nothing of 
pride they handed down to us ? Was nothing of their 
possessions gotten by injustice ? ,-Was nothing of all 
they possessed kept back from the poor — the widow, 
the orphan ? Were all their ideas right or wise ? Had 
they God's glory at heart, and human well-being ? 
Were they God's servants ? Look around you and see 
ivhat heritages of cursing, men are every day laying up for 
those to come after them. Is there no violence, no 
neglect ? Are we instilling no errors, no worldliness, 
no selfishness ? Do you see no airs put on ? Do you 
not see children trained out of — by means of — all that 
their fathers are ? Much that you see to-day will take 
to the third or fourth generation to come to a head. 
From much that we are planting our children's children 
will gather the fruit. Is nothing coming to a head in 
our lot ? And suppose it is. Who should be most glad 
of it ? Who cannot, on bended knees, out of the deepest 
recesses of his soul, ask Gocl that all wrong may end 
in him, that all the past may reach its eternal can- 
celment in his experience ? Who cannot, in far-reaching 



266 



SERMoXS. 



earnestness, ask God to spare his little ones — to let the 
last drop of retribution end now ; that they may go 
out blessed ; go out to be a blessing, and not a curse ; 
go oat to be wiser than their fathers ? "Neither be 
weary." Suppose the length of your trial could be the 
measure of your children's blessing, would you wish it 
to end ? Often it is directly seen how our trials are 
blessings to us, and through us to those whom God 
hath given us. We teach and train them better. We 
lop away much that was vain and artificial. God brings 
us back to first principles — to nature's foundations — to 
manhood — and that, exalted — that, with the fear and 
love of God in it — is the best fortune our children can 
have. Experience is a wise schoolmaster. God is a 
merciful Father. " In the hand of the Lord there is a 
cup, and the wine is red. It is full mixt, and He 
poureth out of the same." But the thought for you and 
me, is, it is He that poureth. We should feel and pray 
as David did — " Let me fall into the hands of God." 
No hand is omnipotent but His. No heart loves like 
His. Even if I am a transgressor, He is still the best 
of all friends. " Neither be weary." We are told by 
one who knew him better than Job — better than 
David — better than Solomon — " He careth for us." 
We are bidden by Him who bore our sorrows, and was 
acquainted with all our griefs, to cast our care upon 
Him. " Neither be weary." Work the problem through. 
We shall find at last, that whether it be justice or 
mercy, they are not two, but only one, all of it spring- 
ing from the one fount of eternal love, and designed to 
bring us to our Father's home in eternal glory. " De- 
spise not the chastening of the Lord ; neither be weary 
of his correction ; for whom the Lord loveth, he cor- 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED 



267 



recteth. even as a Father the son in whom He de- 
light eth." 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 

Romans 8: 18. — For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 

This chapter begins with the thought, that within 
Christ's salvation we are freed from condemnation. This 
thought is there enlarged. The believer is considered 
as a beino: with a nature shattered and disordered, by 
its very impotence at variance with all well-being, but 
to whom a new element is imparted, within whom an 
element of life is implanted. This element has to strug- 
gle for its existence, has to be cultured by the believer 
in the use of grace and all the genial influences of God's 
Spirit. The struggle is in its nature radical, admitting 
of no compromises. To live after the flesh is to die, 
whether by mistake, by neglect, or by design. To have 
the spirit of Christ, is alone to be alive. Being in this 
life of God's spirit we are God's children, with Christ a 
joint-heir to an endless glory — an exaltation transcen- 
dent and eternal, compared with which the sufferings 
of this battle-day, brief at best, are not worthy to be 
considered. " I reckon that the sufferings of this pres- 
ent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory 
which shall be revealed in us." 

All nature, from the simplest atom of matter up to 
the grandest spiritual being, seems to be constructed 
upon a basis of resisting forces. The sun stands in his 



place only by an equilibrium of the centrifugal and cen- 
tripetal action. The lightning would not pass from one 
cloud to another, were there not a want on one side as 
great as the overcharge on the other. In passing, there 
would be no startling brilliance, were it not the air re- 
sisted its action. All the steam in the boiler could 
never move even a locomotive, were it not that the fric- 
tion of the track were greater than the locomotive's own 
weight. In the vegetable there could be no growth but 
by the absorption of one element and the radiation of 
another. Man can know no progress except as he is 
the subject *of a moral resistance. Indeed, when we 
come to man we seem to have reached a point where all 
nature is on one side and only man upon the other. Of 
all beings man is born to struggle. He can even eat 
only as he labors. Even for his body his best condition 
is one only of comparative security, and consequently 
of comparative happiness. He grows strong and secure 
only as he overcomes — only as he is nature's master. 
As you climb up into his moral and spiritual nature, his 
condition seems almost to become desperate. The real 
being is often the farthest possible from the seeming to 
be. A little speck of time covers over the whole angle 
of eternity. " The glory which shall be revealed," seems 
nothing in the shadow of a " present " gratification. 
He asks, how can suffering be a road to bliss, or death 
the avenue to life ? When you look back along the 
ages, you see the history and nature of every man in 
the history and nature of the human race. Man's first 
condition is very nearly a condition of ignorance abso- 
lute. He is ignorant of his own, as of all other nature. 
He is ignorant of all destiny as of all the elements that 
control that destiny, While his infancy has to prepare 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 



269 



him for a grand maturity, infinite mists have to be dis- 
pelled, and very slowly they seem to rise. Often and 
often his progress seems hopeless. When his compar- 
ative maturity is attained, it is still only another stage 
of the same battle. What object stands most clearly 
out above all time-haze and hill-top of human vicissitude? 
Not Persia nor Rome nor Athens, in their poetry, their 
power, or their philosophy — not Ephesus, nor Babylon, 
nor Thebes, with their art, their pleasure, or their hun- 
dred-gated grandeur — not Croesus, nor Csesar, nor Han- 
nibal, with their wealth, their splendor, or their fame. 
No, man's whole history reaches its climax in a cross. 
By a death of all that is earthy there, man has a resur- 
rection into all that is heavenly. And even, then, the 
struggle only thickens. The cross not yet brings peace, 
but only a sword. All agencies of darkness, all ele- 
ments of the old, past, dead nature, conspire to exterm- 
inate the germ of new life. Man catches a glimpse of 
a life by a death— of a glory in a cross — but the con- 
quests of that cross, the glory to be revealed, the abso- 
lute defeat of the whole carnal nature, and perfect en- 
thronement of the pure spiritual nature— man not yet 
sees. The majesty and force and tendency of his own 
struggle, he not fully comprehends. He does not know 
that God is love and light and all freedom — that he is a 
co-worker with God, and therefore a joint-heir with 
Christ. 

This struggle is in all things to which man sustains 
any relations, and man sustains relations to all existen- 
cies. Of all things, man is created the nearest to noth- 
ing. In order to be anything, he must forego all mere 
appearance — he must sacrifice himself. This applies to 
man, take whichever side the moral scale he pleases. 



270 



SERMONS. 



Many persons imagine that only religion — only pure 
moral culture, demands self-denial, self-sacrifice. To 
continue to be nothing is simply impossible. Every 
element of being is a good. Some men continue very 
near to nothing, and the great marvel to thinking beings 
is, how they can continue so indifferent, so insensible. 
Yet, however near, no man can be absolutely nothing. 
He must be upon one side of the moral zero or the other. 
Inaction itself will place him upon the side of wrong ac- 
tion. On either side the sacrifice begins, a sacrifice 
begins. Every man upon earth is sacrificing a half of 
being — -his tvell-hemg, or his ///-being. That is the ques- 
tion with which nature confronts every man — which side 
of being he will sacrifice, will he grow the fruit and cut 
up the thorn, or grow the tares and sacrifice the wheat? 
There is vastly too much idle talk over this subject of 
good and evil. Some men speak as if all our nature 
craved only evil : as if God had thrown us into so love- 
ly and grand a world, only to deny His goodness and 
have no sympathy with Him. Does not every fibre of 
our being abhor the evil ? Why do men everywhere 
work harder in the prosecution of evil than other men 
do in the prosecution of goodness ? Simply because 
" his servants we are to whom we obey whether of sin 
unto death or of obedience unto righteousness." Ten- 
dency becomes fixed principle by the education we give 
it. Use is our second nature — in many cases, our 
whole nature. Take the man who does nothing in the 
great moral struggle. How can the cravings and im- 
pulses you feel within you be dormant in him ? Where 
are the voices that breathe from earth and breathe from 
heaven? Where can his soul be that a great past, an 
infinite future, an endless universe all around him. stirs 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 



271 



no longing within him. Chain you to his nothingness, 
and you would he as those who in ancient times were 
bound while alive to a dead and putrifying corpse. You 
would rather not he than so be. Take the mere world- 
ling, the devotee of etiquette and fashion, the slave of 
society, what a study of the modes, what a lacing and 
racking of the body, what a conformity to the whims of 
others and those others ten to one despised, what a sac- 
rifice of time and money and even modesty to a few 
gew-gaws called dress — what untimely hours, night in- 
verted into day and day into night — what mortifications 
and headaches and heartaches. Yet what resolution, 
perseverance, devotion ! In the meantime, where is 
simplicity, sincerity, individuality, independence ? What 
becomes of usefulness, the service of man, the cultiva- 
tion of all that grace which good men, angels and God, 
all love — the very crown and joy of the moral and spir- 
itual universe that without which there is no glory ^ in 
this world or in any other world. Is there no sacrifice, 
no self-denial ? Who would endure the one-hundredth 
part of the costs for so worthless a prize ? 

Take the dissipated man — he has to face a wife and 
children neglected. He sits at midnight, when honest 
men are asleep, clutching his cup, bleared and bloated, 
parting with the last cent which ought to have bought 
comforts for him and his. Whether at home or abroad, 
he has lost his self-respect. The very abjects care 
nothing for him. The time, and money, and pains he 
has spent in becoming degraded would have placed him 
high in usefulness and honor. Has he known nothing 
of sacrifice ? Has he not had to struggle every day and 
every hour — struggle against every noble sentiment — 
every sacred duty — every manly emotion — to sink 



272 



SERMONS. 



down to such a level ? Take the criminal — while you 
are slumbering, he is braving the storm — baffling the 
smitings of the voices within him- -exercising a high 
ingenuity and skill — spending much means in devising 
and perfecting implements — all only to rob you of your 
gains and place himself in a dungeon. Is there no 
sacrifice ? Can anything be attained without labor ? 
And is not the labor of sin the hardest labor of all ? 
Do we not literally groan, as Paul says, waiting for the 
adoption— the redemption of these bodies? Suppose 
men worked as hard for God ; suppose we sat till the 
stars paled in the morning light, studying the divine 
things within us, and beyond us, would we not know 
more than we do ? Suppose we could crush back the 
promptings of the heart for the sake of peace, and truth, 
and Christ, as the devotee of the world does for the 
sake of appearances, and what he ' calls good manners, 
would there not be more peace upon earth, and good 
will among men ? Suppose we spent as much money 
for God, for man, as we spend upon these poor bodies 
for mammon, would not many palm-trees sprout and 
springs of living water gush out, where now is only bald 
and dreary wilderness. Suppose God's people would 
apply all science for doing men good, as the counter- 
feiter and house-breaker do for doing men harm, would 
there not be far less need of jails and more need of 
churches ? Plow can it be that men have obtained the 
notion that only Christ's burden is heavy and his yoke 
uneasy. Is not the devil the most frightful of all things 
upon earth ; and can any burden, by any possibility, be 
heavier than his ? Men are working doubly harder, 
Christian, to be lost than 3'ou and I are to be saved. 
Men are working doubly harder to curse and crush this 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 



27a 



earth than you and I are to save it. The agents of 
evil are all in earnest ; the agents of righteousness are 
half of us asleep, and one-half of the remainder over on 
the side of the world. If we were as resolutely upon 
the side of God as evil men are upon the side of Satan, 
the time would come in which it could be said, man 
loves righteousness, as truly as it is now said, he loves 
darkness. If the Church of Christ imposed upon us 
one-half the burdens the world imposes, it had been 
rooted out long ago as an intolerable task-master. And 
what a reflection for us, that the purer our faith has 
become the clearer God has been revealed to us, the 
less exacting the Church has been, and is, so much the 
more we seem to lose sight of God's real work, and 
turn the world into a pleasure ground, and life into a 
holiday. Plain as the day, black as the night, stand 
the two sides of this great moral conflict. It has a 
history, it has a development. Enough of it has trans- 
pired to show a great design opening through it. God's 
glory, man's glory ; God's glory through man's exalta- 
tion ; man's glory in standing beside God and working 
together with Him ; man's glory in putting on Christ, 
in dying with Him to all carnal and earthly nature, 
and rising with Him out of that death to a glory unspeak- 
able and eternal. As the unbeliever and sin-lover 
sacrifices his holy nature, his glorious future in that 
nature, so the believer and Christ-lover must sacrifice 
himself and his baser nature. As men have to exert 
themselves to excel in vanity and wickedness, so men 
must exert themselves to attain to holiness. If Satan 
has no drones in his hive, so God has no nothings in 
His heaven. God has so ordered the great struggle — 
so pitched the battle, that you express your individual 



274 



SERMONS. 



being by the position you take in the great strife. To 
be on God's side and do nothing, is to help Satan. " Who 
is not with me," says Christ, "is against me." Now, 
can you wonder at the success of sin — at the prevalence 
of evil, when we contemplate the lethargy of the churches. 
It cannot be said there is absolutely no attempt to do 
God's work. But in the attempt Satan knows there is 
no earnestness. He knows we do not mean anything. 
We do not take hold with any resolution. We do not 
intend to make our sacrifice. We will go as far as it is 
easy to go, and we will go that far as easily as we can. 
One hour of patient labor in moulding a child-spirit on 
Sunday — one hour of real work for God on each and 
every day ; one extra dollar for school tax, book tax, 
church tax, tax to take children out of their ignorance, 
men and women out of their squalor, to lift them up to 
purity of body, and purity of mind, and purity of soul- 
makes every nerve in us thrill 'with horror. As I re- 
marked last Sunday, those great works of Christ, healing 
the blind and lame and sick, and raising the dead, and 
preaching the Gospel to the poor — grand, real as they 
were— were yet only shadows of a glory to be revealed. 
I most heartily believe He meant to tell us the time 
would come when this poor earth, this whole race should 
be lifted up to perfect health, and perfect sight, and 
perfect hearing, and perfect life — when even the lowest 
stratum of this mortality should hear and feel, and re- 
joice in the truth that God cares for it — should look 
ahead and realize that a "glory to be revealed" remained 
even for it. And Paul says, the creature itself — this 
human nature — shall be delivered from the bondage of 
corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. 
I can conceive of no millenium which is anything short 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 



275 



of the enthronement of God's whole law as it was in 
Christ — the physical, obedient to and responsive to the 
mental, and both together obedient to and responsive 
to the spiritual. I cannot conceive that God's kingdom 
has come untill His will is done. 

The real destiny of man is to overcome all nature 
without him and within him, according to God's great 
first command — " Go out and subdue and replenish the 
earth." Make nature your slave. Be a slave to noth- 
ing. Only serve one another and your God. Live in 
light, and air, and truth, and peace. Walk in know- 
ledge and wisdom, the real thing among all the great 
realities around you. By what power were those 
miracles of Christ wrought ? I am certain they were 
not by any violations of God's laws. They tell us 
there were laws and are laws we know nothing about 
which shall be revealed, discovered, the application of 
which by us shall put strength in human shoulders, 
quicken this whole frame, teach us how to grasp and 
apply nature, till there should be no more sickness, no 
more want, no more sorrow, no more spiritual death, 
till there should be a new heavens and a new earth, 
a glory revealed. 

He sent His disciples out to take up His work, to die 
even as He died. Their sufferings are the only measure 
of the degree to which they had drunk their Master's 
spirit. Has the work stopped ? Is the end of the Gos- 
pel met in us, and its work done when we bow our heads 
and say, " I believe ?" Nay, it is then only begun. 
We have all lingered too long in the habit of imagining 
the whole cross and all heaven made exclusively for us, 
in imagining the whole object of our life to be simply to 
slip within the covering of that faith. Here is a garden, 



276 



SERMONS. 



God has put us in to dress it. From the very dawn of 
human existence, man has been his brother's keeper. 
One of the fundamental clauses of the Christian's com- 
mission is — " You are the salt of the earth, the light of 
the world," made to shine, made for somebody's use. 
The saving the world, the mitigating the ills of life, the 
elevation of man in all his being, has through all ages 
been the measure of the Church's life. The power in 
any man to live for others— to die for others — in other 
words, to live for Christ and die for Christ, is the meas- 
ure of his worth, his development, his faith, his value 
to himself, to his age, to his race, to his God. The 
glory, of which many of us conceive, is impossible. The 
glory to be revealed is to be in us. We are to be wor- 
thy of the crown we wear, and of every gem in it. The 
power in any man to die is the guage which will deter- 
mine his place in God's grand world of all light, in the 
glory to be revealed. Not only is our whole nature to 
be developed— not only are we to study all God's laws, 
outside of us as well as inside of us — but there is a so- 
cial law, an element in moral being, which binds us to 
one-another, so that if we go up somebody must go up 
with us. It nobody goes up with us — if nobody goes 
up hy us — then we do not go up. Equality of blessing, 
equality in all blessing is part of the glory to be revealed. 
That equality shall be attained, not by invading a 
single right, but by the enthronement of all right. The 
power to die, if need be, in order to dispense blessing, 
shall be the power to be reckoned among the sons of 
God. If I have a thought and do not impart it to you, 
I betray my own soul. If you can lift your brother 
and do not lift him, you crush yourself. Can you see 
nothing of what it is to love your brother ? It does not 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 



277 



mean simply not to hate him. Can you see nothing of 
how to love is to fulfil all law ? Can you see nothing 
of how the dying is the measure of your love ? Does 
the cross tell us nothing of how God loved us all ? He 
who knew all glory, to whom all glory was already re- 
vealed, conforms to His own law, and is " made perfect 
through suffering," We worship Jesus, We exalt and 
glorify Him. Why ? Because His very dying, proves 
that only God could so love. The very verse which 
precedes our text, says we are joint-heirs with Christ, if 
so he we suffer with Him, that we may he glorified to- 
gether. You see why Paul says so. There can be no 
glory, where there is not the participation in the cross. 

Now, brethren, let me ask, where are our sufferings 
in behalf of Christ ? From what I have said, have you 
caught any glimpse of the glory to be revealed ? the 
enthronement of all law, the banishment of all ignor- 
ance ; no more wrong, no more unlove, no more sickness, 
no more moral and spiritual woe, this great and beauti- 
ful world thrown wide open for all God's children to en- 
joy, tears wiped away from all faces, sorrow and sigh- 
ing fled away, all light and wisdom and knowledge and 
purity and love let in. That is what you mean when 
you pray, " Thy kingdom come,'* if you mean anything. 
Most people imagine that to join the church is no longer 
to have anything to do. Possibly the sufferings of our 
present time are worthy to be compared with the glory 
which shall be revealed in us. What is that glory to 
be ? That glory is for him only who hath eyes to see, 
The curse of the wicked is, and shall be, they see no 
glory. Think ! a great heritage for God's children, and 
you and I not in it ! Think ! as opposed to the glory, 
Christ spake of the " outer darkness " — a darkness out- 



278 SERMONS. 

side, beyond. Think of the millions in the past who 
have lived like sheep, or like wolves, and have died as 
sheep and wolves die. Think of the millions all aronnd 
us, who hear no voices, who see no glory, who never 
think of the cross, what can their condition be beyond 
the vail which God has drawn between two worlds ? 
Can our place ever be with them ? Where is it now ? 
We Christians must wake to a higher life, to broader 
views, to a fuller measure of the spirit of Christ. There 
are infinite things of which our narrow philosophy dreams 
not. Shall God raise up another Church to pass us by 
as we were raised up and passed by the old Mosaic and 
Jewish Church ? It need not be. It appears as if 
written in characters of living light, that the Church's 
mission is as much to men's bodies as to their souls, to 
their souls through their bodies — that religion is to fit 
us to live here as well as to live hereafter, to fit us for 
heaven by fitting us here on earth. Not that we are 
to make ourselves miserable — nay, but to make our- 
selves happy ; not that we are to have no fine houses, 
no fine clothes, no rich enjoyments — nay, but that we 
are all to have finer houses, and finer clothes, and richer 
enjoyments : not for waste, not for pride, not for folly, 
but for man's happiness and God's glory, men are to 
be wiser. 

To bring this about, somebody, you and I, must give 
brain and heart, and hand, and time, bone and sinew, 
and muscle. Somebody, you and I. must give up 
houses and lands, and father and mother, and wife and 
children, yea, and even life also, not by hating them, 
but by not mistaking them, as we now do, for the sum 
and substance of life itself — by rising in them, through 
them, above them, to the glory to be revealed. This 



THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED. 



279 



world wants, and it wants it, because you and I want 
it, more of Christ, more of His work, more work like 
His, for body, for soul, for man ; not that dogma and 
creed are not good enough of themselves, and in the 
ages past just what the world wanted, but that the 
time has come when the world must go on, as Paul told 
the Hebrews, "■ to perfection ;" not laying over again 
the foundation of repentance from dead works. We 
now need a better ground in which to plant the hopeful 
seed. Man must be lifted — physically, mentally, so- 
cially — and then we should also lift him morally and 
spiritually. Christ opened the blind boy's physical 
eyes, and that touched the seeing boy's spiritual heart. 

Beloved, I ask again, where are our " sufferings ?" 
Do we see the glory to be revealed ? What a glory to 
have lived for Christ in any age ; but what a glory to 
live for Christ in this age ! what an inspiring prospect 
opens before the throbbing heart of the true believer ! 
I do not wonder Paul worked and suffered as he did — he 
saw the day that now is dawning. What an inspiration 
is in these latter days for the young ! You have time. 
You have health and talent and opportunity. Not a 
thing you know ; not a thing you possess ; not a hope 
that burns within you, but could now be consecrated, 
sanctified, and you through them be glorified. You 
have something, indeed, beside old habits and preju- 
dices, and a worn-out system to lay upon the altar of 
your love. A longing often possesses me to get back 
to my youth once more, so that I might take care of 
this body and this mind, train and develop both 
together, so that I might work better, and think better, 
and preach better, and do everything better; to know 
more of nature, more of man, more of Christ, so as in 



280 



SERMONS. 



all work to work more wisely. It is too late for rne. 
But you young men and maidens, sons and daughters 
of the Church of Christ, can you be insensible to the 
grandeur of your opportunity, to the voices all around 
you ? Can you serve the world and lose Christ ? Can 
yon sacrifice your better nature and take no side with 
God ? Put Christ's yoke on and wear it for him, boldly, 
resolutely, so that the world can see you mean some- 
thing by it. Take up Christ's burden, and there will 
be strength in the shoulders, and breadth and majesty 
in your bearing, and a reward in glory. And who here 
to-day will say he will have nothing to do with Christ, 
nothing to do with His work, no part or lot in the suf- 
ferings, no part or lot in the glory? I trust not one. 
A sacrifice you. must make, a yoke you must wear. 
Choose whom you will serve. May we all stand with 
Christ in the sufferings of the " present time." May 
all stand with Him in the glory which shall be re- 
vealed " in us." 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 

Matthew 5 : 46, 47, 48. — For if ye love them which love you, what reward 
have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? and if ye salute your brethren 
only, what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans so ? Be ye 
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is is heaven is perfect. 

This is part of our Lord's sermon upon the Mount. 
This sermon is as remarkable for what it implies as for 
what it expresses. Underneath the whole of it there 
is a great foundation of law and logic. If you dig down 
to the base of any one of these precepts, you come to a 
common sense — a naturalness, a direct, practical essence, 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 



281 



which tells you there is nothing artificial about it — 
nothing that is conjectural or problematic, but the whole 
of it a perfect counterpart to life as we find it — a some- 
thing we want in our every-day existence — a something 
responsive to our whole being, mortal and immortal. 
This is a peculiarity attaching to all the discourses of 
Christ. There is not a particle of rhetoric in any one 
of them. There is not a line of wiiat is ordinarily called 
eloquence. There is an infinite interval between Christ 
and all other men. Paul is grand, but there is in him 
the smack of the schools at Jerusalem. He is human 
and his model is artificial. So it is with all other men. 
From them we gather extracts for declamation. But 
we can declaim nothing from Christ. Every utterance 
of His is a thought. It goes down into the soul. It 
tells you something and asks you something. The 
thinker cannot trifle with it, and the trifler cannot ap- 
proach it. It admits of no discussion except as light 
and science admit of discussion — discussion to learn 
about it, to find out all there is in it. There are no 
topics like those which convened the Apostolic College, 
whether we shall eat meat offered to idols, whether we 
shall be circumcised, things of merely temporary interest 
and of very little consequence — things of interest and 
consequence at all, only by reason of our weakness and 
not of our strength. The whole sphere of Christ is in 
the essential and eternal. It is life giving life. It is 
the living clothing the living. Christ differs from others 
as the laws of vegetation differ from trees. Other men 
differ from each other as one tree differs from another 
tree. Christ can give life in all climes to all trees. 
Man is forever only cramping the real life to his notions 
of shape, and that according to his own particular clime. 

36 



282 



SERMONS. 



Underneath this sermon on the Mount there lies 
some vital questions and broad assertions. What is 
religion? Is it a thing variable in kind, or only in de- 
gree? It is necessarily connected with what men call 
religious systems. This human body is dislocated. Its 
limbs are broken. Its parts are diseased. Its eyes are 
blind. Its ears are deaf. Its nerves are paralyzed— 
a leprosy covers it from the crown of its head to the 
soles of its feet, and the worst of the disease is, like the 
opium eater, it loves the trance into which it has fallen. 
The music of nature, the beauty of life, the riches of 
providence are almost lost. Man knows not how to 
respond to them, how to enjoy them. That is what 
makes him lost. He is lost to his better nature, lost to 
a higher nature all around him — lost to God. The object 
of all religious systems is the restoration of the race to 
light and wisdom, health and peace. If there is do 
restoration in the system called religious, then there is 
no religion in it. Religion is health coursing once more 
through these withered limbs — opening the deaf ear, 
quickening the sightless eyes, restoring the flesh of the 
leper as flesh of a little child. There is infinite instruc- 
tion in that act of Christ, when he performed those 
wonderful works before the eyes of John's disciples, and 
bid them go and tell John what things they had seen 
and heard — not the least of which was that " to the 
poor the Gospel was preached." That act was typical. 
The cure must extend to the patient's deepest disease. 
Health must reach the part most affected or the patient 
is in no sense cured. Restoration is the thing wanted. 
Whatever restores is the application needed. A system 
may paint the happiest prospects before us, it may clothe 
us in the most elegant and fanciful drapery. It may 



I 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 283 

lay ns upon the softest bed, but what if the patient is 
no better ? What is the use of your system ? 

These are some of the questions Christ asks us. Then 
He asserts it has been a fatal error among men to love 
their systems much more than the patient, to labor to 
get him to understand the system, as if the knowledge 
of a theory could do the work of an internal life-pro- 
ducing agency. We have taken his pulse in our hand 
and told him it beat too fast or too slow ; explained to 
him why it was so, given him the science of the schools, 
but We have not made him any better. Mark the force 
of that repetition. " Ye have heard that it hath been 
said by them of old time." We have all heard that. 
The ears of every generation have heard it. Many 
generations have heard nothing else. A knowledge of 
how poison works cannot poison us. A knowledge of 
how medicine acts, cannot cure us. All human know- 
ledge is moreover defective. There is no theory upon 
earth that is co-extensive with mortal disease. Every 
system of religion must be, like all other systems, pro- 
gressive. Even if what the fathers believed and prac- 
ticed were in a measure right — right up to their time 
and their degree of development ; if what they taught 
were an advance upon the teaching of other ages, that 
is no reason why we should cling to them forever. It 
is rather a reason why we should do as they set us 
example — advance upon them as they advanced upon 
their fathers. They acted up to the best light they 
had — that was wisdom. If you have more light than 
they, and act only up to where they were, that is un- 
wisdom. Their wisdom was not in their theory, but in 
their action up to their theory— that theory the best 
their times afforded. If you ask whether the laws 



284 SERMONS. 

of morality change, so that a thing may he wrong to- 
day which was right yesterday, I would say, no, the 
laws do not ; hut our degrees of knowledge respecting 
the laws change the conditions under which those laws 
act, are constantly changing. The prime law of wisdom 
is, that a man shall act up to the purest light within 
him. The degree of light is constantly changing. Ex- 
perience is ceaselessly teaching. No matter how the 
human race learns ; if it learns, it is bound to practice. 
The Mosaic law was a grand advance upon the no-law 
that previously existed. The law of Christ was a grand 
advance upon the Mosaic, and the laws for God's chil- 
dren in Heaven are in advance of these precious laws 
in this sermon on the Mount, far as we are yet from 
knowing all there is there. And there is nothing con- 
tradictory in this. The equations of algebra do not 
contradict the laws of simple addition. But he who 
understands algebra will the better understand addition. 
Algebra reveals thoughts respecting simple addition, 
which he who understands simple addition merely does 
not possess. All the religious systems before Christ 
were preventive. They were negative — tending to 
check. That characterizes all human systems. You 
find man constantly endeavoring to throw around his 
brother fetters and leading strings. The instructions 
of Christ are positive, permissive, aggressive, bidding- 
man seek the best. If man finds out, e. g., that polyga- 
my is wrong ; if it is in conflict with high, social ends ; 
if it is destructive of that culture and purity without 
which society cannot be truly exalted, then its existence, 
under the Mosaic dispensation, could be no excuse for 
our retaining it under ours. If we should discover, to 
a demonstration, that capital punishment did more harm 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 



285 



than good ; that it defeated the very ends of humanity 
it was originally intended to promote, then nothing 
could excuse our unwisdom in retaining it. We know 
by experience, both in its existence and in its ceasing 
to exist, that polygamy was an evil. Under the 
Mosaic system, it was tolerated as an evil preferable to 
that absolute lawlessness, culminating in idolatrous 
grossness, characteristic of other nations. If we should 
abolish capital punishment, and there were something 
in the inherent nature of human society demanding it, 
then evil would ensue upon its removal, and we should 
be equally bound to return to it. In this way there is 
a difference between things permitted and things com- 
manded. The decalogue will stand forever. Try it 
whichever way you will, it is lav/. , There is an inhe- 
rent fitness in it with all other things. And yet the 
decalogue is only partial—" Thou shalt do no murder." 
That is all very well ; but even that is only what thou 
shalt not do. It is permitted us to go beyond, and if we 
know that, we are commanded to go beyond. We must 
love our enemy ; not only not murder him, but do him all 
the good we can. And so while the moral law does 
not change, the conditions under which that law acts 
do change. A thing may be wrong to-day which was 
not wrong yesterday. But yesterday that thing was 
not the test that might have been. It was not the ab- 
solute right, only the approximate right, and we 
would have been better off yesterday if we had known 
better. 

You see how natural are these laws of Christ, and 
yet what a revelation they are at the same time. I 
have said the archangels have higher laws than these 
laws of Christ, Perhaps that is hardly conceivable, 



286 



SERMONS. 



They have the same laws, but they have developments 
of those laws not yet perceived by us, and they wonder 
when they look at us in our blindness that we see so 
little of all there is in Christ. They have attained a 
transcendent excellence, yet still in the presence of 
God they veil their faces. God wants us to attain an 
excellence like theirs. The yearning of God toward 
humanity is the yearning of a father's heart toward 
his prodigal and afflicted offspring. It was love that 
impelled God to send His son. To the end that we 
might attain divine excellence Christ Jesus came. This 
object Christ Jesus preached — the uplifting of our 
spirits, of our whole being, by obedience to moral law. 
" You are my disciples if you do whatsoever I command 
you." This excellence is religion. To produce it is 
the object of all religious systems. Have what reli- 
gious systems we may, if we have not this we are a 
sounding brass. If you love those only that love you, 
the publicans can do as much. You are no better than 
they. Self-culture is your mission. Be ye, therefore, 
perfect even as your Father " in Heaven is perfect." 

This was the preaching of Christ. This reformation 
of our lives is the one doctrine characteristic of Christ. 
Only toward the last of His mission did He touch upon 
the great laws underlying all moral action, and then He 
only touched them. It was just before He was separated 
from His disciples, He said, " I have yet many things 
to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Often 
have we wondered what those things were. If the 
world could not bear them then, can it bear them yet ? 
If Christ could not reveal them, can mortal ingenuity 
discover them. In religion, as in all other departments 
of human economy, there is a science as well as an art, 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 



287 



i. e., there is a system of laws independent of man, on 
which man must base his action — a part God has done, 
and which works whether man understands it or not. 
It has been but recently that man knew anything of na- 
ture. He knows very little now. But nature has 
always responded to our wants just the same. It. has 
always rained so that the springs should be full, and man 
should have water to quench his thirst and strengthen 
his body. We know how heat causes the air to carry 
up the moisture little by little till it returns to us again 
in refreshing rain. But our knowledge does not make 
it rain the more. It does not make water the more 
refreshing. We are the better off for our knowledge, 
because it is sweet to understand God. But it rains 
upon heathen lands as upon ours. The barbarian finds 
a refreshment as well as we, and the one law of essen- 
tial interests to us is, not that which produces the rain, 
but that we drink. So, there are laws of religion, laws 
of Christ's atonement, laws working in us and for us, 
but unknown to us ; we cannot bear them now. Christ 
did not come to reveal them all to us. Into some of 
them the angels desire to look. One object of Christ's 
coming was to fulfil those laws, to do something for us 
which by those laws was needful. Then He wanted to 
show us how to live, so that we might attain eventually 
a knowledge of them — how to drink at the eternal foun- 
tain, so as to be made alive, lie desired us to do God's 
will that tve might know of the doctrine. Knowledge 
would be after obedience, or never. Obedience is wis- 
dom — knowledge is the fruit of wisdom. The tree must 
be first and the fruit afterwards. Where the tree is not 
no fruit can be. The test of wisdom is the absolute 
life. You observe the ground-swell, the principle un- 



288 



SERMONS. 



derlying this sermon, the betterness, the purer, the 
higher being. The wisdom of this is proved again by its 
harmony with existing facts. The wise life is the one 
thing wanted by the individual, and the one thing essen- 
tial to the well-being of the whole social body- — the one 
thing essential to well-being whether in this world or 
any world. When a thing is true all other truths tend 
to confirm it. Wisdom is sustained by all things else, 
and thus the wisdom of Christ is transcendent. Can 
the church be wiser than Christ ? Has the church fol- 
lowed Christ's example ? What mean the philosophies 
and dogmas and isms that are preached in the world ? 
Do we preach the Gospel as Christ preached it, or, do 
we define what Christ did not define and preach our 
definitions instead ? If we are not the dead merely go- 
ing forth to bury the dead, if we have not one to preach 
Paul and another to preach Appollos, and another to 
preach Cephas ; how is it that it takes so many to do 
what a few could do as well? If we all have Christ to 
preach, how is it there is so little Christianity? 

This leads to the whole question of preaching. What is 
preaching the Gospel? What is the Gospel to be preached? 
We talk much of preaching Christ, what is it to preach 
Christ? Do I preach Christ when I preach about Christ ? 
If so, do I preach Paul when I preach about Paul, or 
Jerusalem when I preach about Jerusalem? Did Christ 
preach Himself? When He sent men out to preach, 
He commanded them to preach repentance and the 
kingdom of heaven, in other words that men be wise in 
order that they might enter the kingdom of heaven. 
That is what Christ Himself preached. Is it preaching 
Christ to tell you what Augustin preached, or what 
the Thirty-nine articles contain ? Is it preaching Christ 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 



289 



to tell you you belong to a church which knows what 
is true V Christ did not preach about things, but He 
preached certain things themselves. He preached that 
without the practice of wisdom, there could be no salva- 
tion. If you that are saved, are just like those that are 
unsaved, then what reward have ye, i. e. what is your 
salvation worth? If you have no virtue and no grace, 
no purity, no excellence, no releasement from sense and 
time : nothing more than the worldly have — what is the 
use of your religion ? If you are selfish and of no more 
use — if the world is lifted no higher than it would be 
if you were a worldling, then how is it, are you the 
better off for your Christianity? You are not perfect, 
and the whole object of all religion is, that you might 
be. Heaven is rest and blessedness because there is 
nothing to make unrest and unblessedness. Earth will 
be rest and blessedness in proportion as you are above 
publicans and sinners. That is preaching something 
definite, something practical. It is preaching virtue and 
self-control, and self-culture and heavenliness, that you 
be such a power, such a living vitalized and vitalizing 
agent. Did Christ preach the Gospel ? Did He intend 
to set us an example of preaching ? Do we preach Him 
when we preach what He preached? Does not the 
world need it to-day as much as it ever needed it? 
When men looked at Christ, when we look at Him, we 
see glad tidings in Him. Is it intended man should be 
like Him? How blessed! He was a Gospel. Does it 
so happen with the church? Is she a Gospel? At the 
first she was a Gospel. But very shortly she left off 
preaching what Christ preached, and being what Christ 
was. and took to explaining abstract laws, and to preach 
that she was commissioned to preach. She left the art 



290 SERMONS. 

or practice of being, and took to the science or theory 
of being. The consequence was that the elements which 
were in the world became dominant in the church. The 
church became distinguished from the world only by 
being more intensly worldly. And there she is to this 
day. And the world seems to react upon us with the ques- 
tion of the Master. If ye love them that love you. why 
the publicans can do as well, and where is your perfec- 
tion ? If the world's irreligion is as good as your religion, 
then how are ye better than they? I ask again, what 
is it to preach Christ? Do I preach Swedenborg. when 
in his name my doctrine is Swedenborgian ? Do I preach 
Plato, when in his name my doctrine is Platonic ? Do 
I preach Christ, when in His name my doctrine is 
Christian? What is it then to preach Christ? Is it 
to dwell in pathetic utterances upon the whole scene of 
the Incarnation ? Then why not as the church once 
did. make the scene more vivid by scenic representation? 
Why not, as men do still, have crosses and altar-cloths 
and ritualistic celebrations? Do those who have the 
most of these become the most unworldly, or only the 
most unearthly and unheavenly ? Is it to preach our 
varied philosophies or unphilosophies which we cannot 
exactly prove nor disprove, and which proved or disproved 
matter practically very little one way or the other ? Is 
it not plain, that to preach the Gospel is to preach what 
Christ Jesus preached ; that men might again be what 
Christ Jesus was ; son of the Highest. As He said Him- 
self, children of your Father in heaven, perfect as He is 
perfect. Light to this world, salt to this earth. 

And if only such a Gospel should be preached in our 
day. would it not make as much of a stir as the 
preaching of Christ Jesus did in His day ? 1 seat my- 



PERFECTION EN RELIGION. 



291 



self with that crowd there upon the Judcean Mount 
and see the folds of Christ's thought settling like an 
icy mist around them. Have you ever reflected how 
wonderfully little those discourses of Christ affected, 
burning as they must have come from those lips whose 
very utterances one would suppose were conviction ? 
Or have you thought what sort of a stir, it was the 
preaching of Christ Jesus made ? You may easily 
imagine. Suppose He were here to-day. and should 
say to you, You have heard from them of old time ; 
you have been told by the apostolic succession that if 
you are baptized and join the church and say your 
prayers, and live as you list, and lead a life of no par- 
ticular value to you or anybody else, then you are a 
child of God and an inheriter of the Kingdom of 
Heaven ; but I tell you. nay, unless you repent you 
can never see the Kingdom of God. You must perish 
forever. Suppose He should say, you have come 
up here to-day, and you have listened to the music, 
and you have followed through the prayers, and 
you have obeyed an old habit, and followed the 
customs of those of old time ; but you have not 
worshipped God. I tell you nay, ten to one, if a single 
circumstance in all your belongings were changed you 
would not be here at all. You are possibly a little 
further from the Kingdom of God, because you are con- 
firmed in a mistake. God is worshipped in deed and 
in truth — that is, in life-action, and in humble sincerity. 
You have heard it said this is the place where men 
ought to worship ; but your lives show you are isola- 
tors. You brought your gods here with you in your 
hearts and about your persons. They were made with 
hands, and came across the ocean. Your gospel is not 



292 



SERMONS. 



mine, but was issued in Paris, and you are obeying it 
to the letter. Every day you live for that, because the 
daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched 
forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as 
they go, and making a tinkling sound with their feet. 
Therefore, the Lord will smite the daughters of Zion, 
and will take away their tinkling ornaments and their 
nets, and veils, and bracelets, and ornaments for the 
legs, and head-bands, and rings, and jewels, and many 
changes of apparel, and crimping-pins, and fine linen; 
and it shall come to pass, instead of perfumery, shall 
be offensiveness ; and, instead of well-set hair, bald- 
ness ; instead of a stomacher, a girding of sack-cloth. 
In other words, instead of your being Christians, and 
contributing to make the world beautiful in holiness, in 
simplicity, you are only helping it to revolve in folly, 
and all the consequences of folly, poverty, vice, and 
woe ; instead of a Saviour, you are helping on the 
world outside in its wretchedness and death. If you 
do as the worldlings do, how are ye better than they ? 
Not that gold, or apparel, is in itself wrong, but when 
the soul passes into anything material, it passes into a 
grave. It is this which keeps the world envying, and 
striving, and drudging, and cheating, and sinning, and 
we are not lifting ourselves out of it, not redeeming 
ourselves, and therefore not blessing this world. Your 
adorning ought not to be that outward adorning of 
plaiting the hair, wearing of gold, and putting on of 
apparel; but the hidden man of the heart, that which 
is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and 
quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 
Suppose he should say, You are pretending to lay up 
treasure in Heaven, but you are mistaken. Your whole 



PERFECTION IN RELIGION. 293 

life is one death struggle to lay up treasure upon earth. 
Yon do not know yourself, nor eternal things, nor what 
real treasure is. You do not suffer your little children 
to come to me. You train them for the w >rld ; puff 
them with the vanity of earth, and set their affections 
upon things below. You are seeking pearls, but not 
heart, and mind, and soul — the pearls of unspeakable 
price. Great thoughts and beautiful facts, and endless 
knowledge are everywhere, only unknown to you. 
You are afraid of thought, and court amusement, while 
you shun the true amusement, the joys of angels. You 
want to help to save the world and offer a sacrifice to 
God, but precious souls are all around you trodden 
under foot, sunk into bitter degradation ; but you put 
forth no hand to rescue. Vice erieth in the street, and 
luxury and ease respond from the church. The poor 
way-faring brother is robbed and half dead in the pit, 
and yon, the priest and Levite, are passing by on the 
other side. I say unto you that you have left no 
houses, nor lands, nor sister, nor brother, nor wife, nor 
children, for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake, and so you 
cannot have the true blessing of the life that now is, 
nor that in the- world to come, life everlasting. You 
are no peculiar people, zealous of good works. You 
are no light of the world, no salt of the earth—not good 
and profitable unto men. You are not saved, i. e., 
saved out of anything that is evil, saved into anything 
that is particularly good— therefore, not saved at alh 
You would begin to think He was a strange man. You 
would think that kind of preaching was very discourag- 
ing, and you may imagine how those poor Jews heard 
Him. You would not know He w 7 as the Saviour, the 
son of God, You would look upon Him as an ignorant 



294 



SERMONS. 



xn in, and not worth minding, and so you would not 
reflect upon what lie said, but go away prejudiced, and 
the worse for your hearing. Yon would prove that 
your religion were a mere sentiment, and not religion. 
You would do just as these people did, think he ought 
to be arrested and persecuted, and driven from society, 
and think when you had gotten rid of Him you had of 
necessity gotten all that was wise, and good, and true. 
But, beloved, is it not time for such a gospel to be 
preached again ? Do we not all need it ? A commo- 
tion it would make, but ought not a commotion to be 
made? Does not this world to-day bitterly want just 
the virtues Christ preached ? — simplicity, sincerity, 
unselfishness, usefulness, purity, modesty, separation 
from the w 7 orld — something not hollow and sentimental, 
not living in con ventionals, artificials, and externals — 
something not all name, something to which the poor 
can come, and the ignorant and helpless, and feel they 
have a friend ? Is it not time religion were become 
practical ? If we compare ourselves with the publicans 
and sinners, where would we draw the line ; or, if God 
had to draw the line, would he draw any line at all? 
Is there any perfection in you or me which makes us 
the children of God. Have we learned anything of 
Christ. Has that unspeakable sacrifice that he made 
in that incarnation, availed to bring you or me nearer 
to the Kingdom of God ? 

Brethren, however you answer these questions, haye 
I preached to you Christ to-day ? Do you see any 
reasons why He drew 7 a line between believers and the 
publicans ? Have you any higher idea of wisdom — of 
your life-work ? Thai there is need of a positive self- 
examination and real resolution and communion with God 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 



295 



in order to be the children of the Highest? Who saves 
his own soid blesses a world, for he is a light across the 
pathway of others. Is there any additional inkling of 
what Heaven is and of how you are to be heavenly ? 
Let me exhort you to be more real, more in earnest, to 
find your soul and bring it to Christ, and make it like 
Him, to be His disciple in sincerity and truth. He is 
truly a disciple who does as Christ commands. He 
only buildeth his house on a rock who heareth these 
sayings of His and doeth them. 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 

Luke 14 : 18. — And they all with one consent began to m ik exc ise. 

The whole chapter in which this text occurs is one 
of great simplicity, and yet one of unutterable depth 
and force. Christ was being entertained by a " Chief 
- Pharisee," at this Pharisee's own house. It is more 
than probable that such an event did not often occur, 
and the deportment of Christ under the circumstances is 
marked and peculiar. The Pharisees as a class were 
a people of what we would call great refinement — re- 
finement of sentiment and manner. They were strictly 
observant of all the rules of etiquette — practicing and 
demanding all the ''proprieties." To such a people truth 
— plain, simple reality, could never be anything but 
vulgar. Whatever w r as vulgar could never be worthy 
of their attention from the simple fact that it was vulgar. 
Of necessity, to them, to seem to be was better than to be. 
They had attained the position which the world has 



296 



SERMONS. 



mistaken over and over again for wise cultivation — the 
position from which that is considered beautiful language, 
which disguises the truth, and makes the bitter appear to 
be the sweet. To the Pharisees generally a pronouncement 
of truth was impossible, " like people, like priest." The 
Rabbis had grown as refined as the Pharisees. Truth 
was hidden from their e} r es — or if they saw any truth, 
they dared not pronounce it, because refined ears must 
never be alarmed or shocked, but only soothed. A two- 
fold force killed the truth, the inability of the Rabbis to 
see it- — the inability of the people to receive it. What 
was preached and received might have been true enough 
to a certain extent, but it was not truth which their 
souls demanded. It was historic, or scientific, or theo- 
logical truth. It was not practical, religious truth. 
Theology and religion are two distinct things. Theology 
is dogma and speculation. Religion is love and practice. 
Theology is knowledge. Religion is w T isdom. The 
earthly refinement of all ages has cast out religion and 
taken theology. Puffed up with knowledge, the world, 
the church, has always prescribed what its teachers I 
shall teach, and they have always prescribed only that 
which they alreadj' thought they knew, or that which 
was only pleasant and self-indulgent. Hence truth or 
religion has always had to rise against the church in 
opposition to it — rise in plain truth, against flowery 
sentiment — in the vernacular against an artificial lan- 
guage. It is very strange men should insist upon so 
deceiving themselves, and upon being so deceived, but 
nevertheless the fact remains. 

This condition of things exists very much in the times 
in wdiich we are now living. Few of us have heart or 
head for religious truth. The truth to be preached is 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 



297 



prescribed by a vain, empty and worldly age. The people 
know more than the preachers, and the preachers who 
do know anything have no easy time in being heard. 
A divine of high position has recently pronounced that 
the Episcopal Church has an imbecile pulpit. That 
pronouncement has gone out all over this land, and to 
foreign lands with whatever of truth or error it contains. 
But a very legitimate question rises out of it, whether all 
pulpits are not to a very considerable extent "imbecile," 
filled with theology rather than with religion, with con- 
ventional refinement, rather than with God's truth, with 
gentle straws for itching ears, rather than with the bread 
of life for lost souls. A gentleman who has renounced 
our own ministry and gone into business, writes me, 
" that he could not conscientiously continue in a salaried 
position, when people bought not only his tongue, but 
his freedom of thought and action," and though his 
position may be a very unwise one it serves to illustrate 
the pressure of the times, the constraint of the age. 

Christ was at the Pharisee's house. It is of no use 
to question the motive of the Pharisee in having Him 
there. He knew Christ, and Christ knew him. In our 
way of reasoning, we would have said here is an oppor- 
tunity to conciliate this man. His prejudices must be 
disarmed. He must see that this Jesus of Nazareth 
is not a vulgar plebeian. His respect must be challenged. 
He must be outshone even in his own splendor. But 
Christ does not so understand it. He sees in the Pharisee 
nothing but a lost sinner. He knows that the Pharisee's 
whole life and being are in discord with divine wisdom. 
The gauze of refinement which he has hung over his 
naked and leprous soul, Christ sees immediately through, 
and true to His nature as the divine healer, He ministers 



298 



SERMONS. 



truth to the man's spirit. So with the friends of the 
Pharisee around Him. To conciliate them is nothing — 
to do them good is everything. His instruction even 
partakes of the nature of a rebuke. He transgresses the 
laws of Pharisaic propriety, by being to a considerable 
extent personal. Their pride and self-importance in 
seeking out the chief rooms, He condemns, and tells them 
to be more retiring, self-denying and humble. A dis- 
course by one of the Rabbis on humility would have 
been very beautiful, but such a practical enforcement 
could hardly have been edifying. Such is the way of 
all error and unwisdom. He turns to the Pharisee him- 
self — possibly appealing to the motive from which he 
had made this feast. " When thou inakest a feast do 
not call the rich and those who are able to pay you with 
another feast. That is the world's way. The publican, 
whom you despise, does as much as that. Call the blind 
and the poor, and those who have nobody to make 
a feast for them. Then, not hoping for a reward, 
but simply out of the gratitude of a thankful heart, 
seeking to bless your brother, made in God's image. 
God will take care you have your reward in the king- 
dom of heaven." Then from these particulars He spreads 
it all out in a general truth. Through these earthly re- 
lations — out of these every-day providences, look up and 
see God above — look around and see all His children 
below view your own actions. Apply these principles 
and see how you are coming short of that heaven of 
which I have just spoken. " A certain man made a 
great supper and bade many, and sent his servant at 
supper time to call them that were bidden, and they all 
with one consent began to make excuse." 

In reading this parable, the general practice is to go 



V 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 299 

away outside of the church to those who, to us, appear 
not to hear the claims of the Gospel, and make its 
application there. That is a great mistake. All this 
artificial and unnatural bloom of life, called emphatically 
society, has its own laws and regulations. I believe it 
is customary now on receiving an invitation to a great 
entertainment, to send a response whether you can 
attend or not. By a previous engagement, or an indis- 
position, or other prescribed reasons, an excuse may be 
made. Among the Pharisees, an announcement was 
made of a feast; the invited signified their acceptance ; 
when all was ready, a servant was sent to call them 
that were bidden. This was virtually placing before 
them the feast, their acceptance of which they had 
already signified. Now, to turn from it was a breach 
of the rules, an insult to their friend. God is the great 
host who has made the great feast. The Scribes and 
Pharisees, and Sadcluces, and the different classes of all 
avowed friends of God are the guests bidden. They 
have set up to be the friends of God. They have 
ostensibly accepted God's invitation. The heathen 
have never pretended to belong to such a circle. They 
have made no acceptance. Israel is the son who said, 
" I go, sir," and then neglected to go. The heathen is 
the son who said, " I will not go," but afterwards re- 
pented and went. The parable, therefore, applied 
directly to the Jews — to the very people to whom 
Christ was speaking. It applies to us who are in God's 
visible church — to us who have nominally in baptism, 
in the creeds, in church communion said, " I go, sir. " 

It is much to be questioned whether any large pro- 
portion of us see anything more than the bare outside 
of the Christian faith — the bare outside of daily life — 



300 



SERMONS. 



whether we ever penetrate into the meaning of this 
wonderful being in which we are involved. The words 
heaven, and earth, and hell, life, death, and eternity, 
providence, faith, salvation, are very familiar, but they 
are not words the meaning of which is generally under- 
stood. Heaven means the place where truth and love 
are — where ignorance and mistake are not — heaven is 
the aggregated wisdom of the universe — the collected 
jewels of God. Earth is one place where those jewels 
are produced, sought and sometimes found — earth is 
the furnace, the crucible, the proving place. Hell is 
where the rejected of heaven are. Life is the exercise 
of all virtue and grace, it is holiness in action, the 
vitality of all purity ; life is peace and growth. Death 
is the absence of all life. Eternity is the here as well 
as the hereafter ; it is being, whether upon this world, 
or any other world. Providence is whatever is, every 
belonging, every surrounding, every cause and every 
effect ; it is the fire God puts under the crucible. Faith 
is knowing the crucible, and the fire, and the refiner- 
waiting, enduring, working — till goodness, till God, is 
reflected in us. Salvation is absence of all seeming to 
be- — presence of all holy reality- — all wisdom — the 
becoming a jewel— the finding of, and admission to 
heaven. All earth 'has no other meaning than simply 
to sift human souls and see which are truly jewels. And 
earth is doing this, whether we know it or do not know 
it. Saying we are jewels has no effect whatever upon 
the great sifter. The names we assume have no effect 
whatever before God. We are baptized to-day, or we 
assume our baptismal vows. We renounce the devil, 
the vain pomp and glory of the world. But do we? 
We accept God's invitation to the Feast of Life, What 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 



301 



is that feast ? All the grand things, the good things, 
the sweet and rich things of the universe. There is 
not one thing wanting which, by any possibility, can be 
good for an immortal souL All knowledge is in it, all 
wisdom, all virtue ; knowledge does not mean all that 
we assume, such as, that I am now a member of the 
church, have a pure creed and firmly believe it. 1 

Wisdom does not mean that which is pleasant to my 
carnal nature, and virtue does not mean mere absence 
of vice. It is not self-contentment of any sort. It is 
opposition to the whole kingdom of darkness. It is to 
be a pillar of truth, a tower of strength, a co-worker 
with God. Well, you have said, " I go, sir." Your 
lot in life is a very desirable one. You have reached 
the summit of human ambition. Ypo have attained to 
great possessions. You have added another piece to 
your inheritance. Your soul is very easy. There 
is a high satisfaction in your heart. By your own 
virtue and your own greatness you have attained 
to this position. " Is not this great Babylon that 
I have built?" Like the Scribes and Pharisees, 
you have reached the utmost top of respectability, 
polish, and social standing. Nobody questions it. 
All around you, lying in loathsome ignorance, de- 
pravity and woe, are hundreds of your fellow-beings. 
They need instruction. You have time and information. 
They need homes. You have means. You are called 
upon by this agency and that. You, however, do not 
see any claim upon you. The supper is ready. You are 
invited. "I have a piece of ground. I pray you ex- 
cuse me." " If other people are worse off than you are 
it is their own fault." You have no interest in any of 
these things. You believe in jails more than in schools, 



302 



SERMONS. 



A poor man owes you a small debt. It is very small, 
but he is very poor. He must, however, pay it, even if 
he has to sell his bed. Business is business. Though 
you have plenty, you still have to live by all you can 
get. A man has said something to you which annoyed 
you. It was great presumption. He must be taught 
better. You cannot forgive him. You can henceforth 
not even speak to him. You cannot bear all things. 
. You have no mercy. You are not a tower of strength. 
The world drags on moaning and groaning. You are 
at your ease. The world would be just as well off if 
you did not live. You are not a jewel. Love, mercy, 
usefulness, humility, sweet blessings for you God has 
spread before you. Providence has found its messen- 
gers to call you to the feast. Every day and every 
night sends back the reply, " I have all I want. I pos- 
sess a piece of ground. I have added to my estate. 
I must see how much more honor and enjoyment I can 
get. I pray you hav«e me excused." You have said, 
u I believe." You sit in the sanctuary with Moses and 
the Prophets. God's messengers greet you. These 
providences. They ask, " How much do you believe ?" 
" Of what use to you are Moses and the Prophets ? " 
Your reply goes back, " I have possessions ; I pray 
you excuse me." And you think God does excuse. 
But you are not a jewel, and God says, " this man that 
was bidden shall never taste of my supper." 

Again, another man says, " I have bought five yoke 
of oxen ; I must needs go and prove them." You ob- 
serve the first man has secured all he wants. He has 
reached the acme of human ambition. u Soul, take 
thine ease — eat, drink, and be merry." This second 
man is only on the road to it. He is still speculating. 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 



303 



He knows there is such a thing in the world as one 
man taking: advantage of another. He knows that all 
trade is very much the taking advantage for selfish 
ends, of human ignorance, human need, and human 
helplessness. Well, he has been baptized. He says, 
I believe in Jesus Christ. He sits with Moses and the 
Prophets. God has called him to be an agency to 
bring about human comfort, confidence of man in man, 
the working of legitimate business' for the good of the 
masses, compassion for his brother, a power to mitigate 
life's ills, the heart to send the tide of contentment and 
peacefulness through all our social, civil, and domestic 
relations, the spirit to make this world brighter and 
happier ; these are the feast to which God invites. 
Just these virtues are needed in Heaven to make it 
Heaven. Every soul must have them that goes to 
Heaven. Christ Jesus, at whose name we bow our 
head, in whom we say we believe, He is our legislator, 
the regulator of our action — so we think. But out in 
trade to-morrow morning there is a fluctuation in the 
market. You know the people are crying for bread. 
There is a providence, a messenger from God to invite 
you to His feast. You turn, where ? Not to Christ, 
not to your poor brethren, not to keep the price down. 
You turn to the " prices current," to what your neigh- 
bor is going to do, to get all you can. To the whisper- 
ings of Christ's religion, you say I have bought a 
hundred barrels of flour. I must make out of them all 
that is possible. " I pray you excuse me." Reflect 
upon this, brethren, for it is a whole subject in itself 
which the shortness of the hour forbids me to enter 
upon. You see the affairs of this world all out of joint. 
Can the men that manage them, in making their own 



304 



SERMONS. 



fortunes, go to Heaven to make another world like the 
world that now is ? Do you not see that Christians, 
so called, have as much to do in unjointing it as any 
class of men upon earth. How few men there are who 
think that in their every-day work they are writing up 
their fitness, or their unfitness for the kingdom of 
heaven. Is it possible for the world to be any better 
off than it is while we all follow the maxims of the 
world itself, instead of the precepts of Christ. And 
could it be possible for us to go to Heaven, and not 
disturb the very heavens themselves, and because we 
would disturb, is it possible for us to go to Heaven 
at all ? 

These thoughts appeal to us especially in these times 
of ours. Think of the unrighteous monopolies which 
make it so hard for us to live. From the bread and 
meat we eat to the very shoes upon our feet, how 
impossible it seems to be for an honest man— a child of 
God— a true believer in Christ- — any longer to obtain 
anything. Speculation— grasping — going up, as we call 
it— how it has eaten the soul out of religion, out of 
life itself. God calls us to riches everlasting, we all 
seem to say— not simply the wicked world away outside 
of- the church, but God's church itself — " I believe, but 
I have bought five yoke of oxen; I must attend to my 
speculations ; I pray you excuse me." If the Christian 
men, so called, who now control « the great and little 
affairs of the world would do it upon Christ's principles, 
instead of upon the no-principle systems now in vogue, 
we should all be much nearer the kingdom of God than 
many of us now are. But the thought for us — Christian 
people— is, that all these things are messengers of God 
inviting us. The supper is ready ; will you come ? 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 305 

Throw our souls into trade if we will, make all the 
money we can, but understand "God is not mocked; 
whatsoever a man soweth that must he also reap." Life 
is a much more solemn thing than even we Christians 
appear to think it. Every day God's real children are 
crying to God against His nominal children. " He 
heareth the cry of the poor and will help them." 

And this brings us to a third class. " And another 
said, I have married a wife and, therefore, I cannot 
come." You observe the first two are very bland and 
polite : — " I pray thee have me excused." This last is 
very abrupt and emphatic :- — " Therefore I cannot come." 
It is very remarkable that when men have things their 
own way and are getting prosperously on, they too often 
look with an air of patronage upon religious matters, 
and act as if to impress the world that it ought to be 
very thankful they stoop to take notice of such matters 
at all. You present the great claims of humanity or of 
God, and they are both one. They distantly admit the 
claim, but kindly ask to be excused. But among those 
devoted to the pleasures of life, as the Pharisees were, 
or among those grappling with the stern realities of 
every day existence, you get a point-blank denial, an 
absolute refusal to clo any more than just what they 
have chosen to take in hand. How many people there 
are who ought to have time upon their hands, as they 
have resources within their control, who have wedded 
themselves to some lovely thing, and rush giddily on, 
regardless of all claims of God, all laws, examples, and 
precepts of Christ. Little ignorant children all around, 
ask every day for instruction. They know not how to 
sew, nor how to make and mend, nor how to bake their 
bread, and are growing into a maturity of ignorance and 

39 



306 



SERMONS. 



of consequent suffering. Sunday schools, industrial 
schools open their doors and invite the teacher to invite 
the children. The response is an absolute ignoring of 
any claim — a flat refusal to accept the work. Or, this 
expression also has another meaning. Christ included 
here what He expressed in another place, as " the cares 
of this life." He means the real, lawful, daily cares, 
just as under the headings above He means the real, 
lawful business of time ; just as the legitimate trades of 
the world are by illegitimate pursuit keeping us out of 
the kingdom of heaven. So the duties of domestic 
life — real legitimate duties, but multiplied and magnified 
by false theories of living — pride, extravagance, and 
folly — are carrying many a man to a place among the 
lost. Many a man has no time to read, no time to think, 
no time to pray. He has nothing to give away, nothing 
to lay up even for his own offspring. He grows morose, 
seclusive, fretful. The graces of cheerfulness, affection, 
sympathy die out of him, even for going to church he 
has no heart. The virtues of Christ, dear and beautiful 
as they once were to him, have lost their attraction. 
He started out to be a power in the world, to do some- 
thing heroic, but the religion of Christ is an impossible 
religion. It is good enough for clergymen and sick 
people, but not for men burdened with cares. He has 
been baptized. He has often said, "I believe," but his 
every day answer is, as he looks sadly around him, 
therefore I cannot come; w r aste and extravagance in 
the kitchen ; waste and extravagance all over the 
house, at home and abroad, crush him to the earth. 
Often he even forsakes the path of rectitude and honor. 
He covets that which is his neighbor's. He reaches 
forth his hand, plucks the forbidden thing, and dies. 



PARABLE OF THE FEAST. 307 

Not only is he far short of the eternal heaven, but the 
little heaven he hoped for upon earth, the little home- 
heaven he once saw as it were in his grasp, all is gone. 
"He has married a wife " — not her fault altogether. 
Gocl put him to be master where he has allowed himself 
to become a slave. If you build a fire in your house 
and do not control it, it will consume you ; under proper 
control it will warm and cheer, and fill even the soul 
itself with benediction. 

Brethren, are w 7 e not delinquent all the way through ? 
Has not this ivorlcl already dragged us clown to great 
unhappiness ? Can it carry us up to a throne in heaven ? 
Hear the echo of Christ's injunction ! Love not the 
world, nor the things of the world. If any man love 
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. These 
questions are much more important than we have been 
in the habit of considering them. Can you not see how 
indeed we are to be the salt of the earth, the light of 
the world ? Do you not see it needs salt and needs 
light? Where shall it get it if we fail? If the salt 
have lost its savor? God nowhere complains that 
we follow legitimate business, nowhere denounces any 
business that can conduce to human good — does not 
forbid us pleasure, nor prohibit domestic enjoyments. 
He only would have us in all things wise and so, happy 
— happy by wisdom, and these relations of life are the 
agencies by which He proves us. Every providence 
asks us how much we believe in Christ. The bare 
absence of vice is not virtue. The simple removal from 
poverty is not wealth. God's jewels must be away up 
above the nothings. The world is fall of error and folly. 
Gocl wishes to see whether you love error and folly, or 
whether you hate it. Every clay is sending up your 



308 



SERMONS. 



response — not here in the sanctuary, where you sing 
and bow your head, but in your family — in the thrift 
and vigilence and love that is there, in your business, 
in the care for your fellow men, and love of God, and 
His laws that is there — in your ease and plenty and 
possessions, in the employment of them in the service of 
humanity that is there. If these be not there then we 
do not love God. We love the world. Mark the words 
of the Saviour. If any man come to me and hate not 
his father and mother, and wife, &c, yea, and his own 
life even, he cannot be my disciple. Through every day, 
through every providence, when we are not faithful, 
goes up the answer : " I pray thee have me excused," 
and God says, " verily they shall not taste of my supper." 
Life means something. If we fall upon it we shall be 
broken, but if it fall upon us it will grind us to powder. 
God's agents go out — -agents of calamity, distress, afflic- 
tion—go down into the . highways and hedges of life, 
where we look not for God's children — go outside of those 
who have made great professions, to those who have 
practically said, " I will not go," and the love of God, 
working through trial and tribulation constrains them, 
compels them to come in, and they up, out of want and woe ; 
Christ's own poor, are seated with Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, while the children of the kingdom are cast out. 

Beloved, such are the words of the Master, such is 
the parable. May we walk circumspectly. The time 
is short, it remaineth that they that buy be as though 
they possessed not, and they that use this world as not 
abusing it, for while the fashion of it passeth away, the 
results of it endure forever. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



I. The Fold and the Shepherd 7 

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold — them also I 
must bring-, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold 
and one shepherd. — John 10 : 16. 

II. Elijah in the Cave , 22 

And he came thither into a cave, and lodged there, and behold 
the word of the Lord came to him, and He said — 11 What doest thou 
here, Elijah?— 1 Kings 19 : 19. 

III. Wisdom 35 

A wise man will hear and will increase learning : and a man of 
understanding shall attain unto wise counsels; to understand a prov- 
erb, and the interpretation — the words of the wise and their dark 
sayings. — Proverbs 1 : 5, 6. 

IV. The Samaritan Leper 50 

And Jesus answering, said, Were there not ten cleansed? But 
where are the nine? — Luke 17 : 17. 

V. The Fidelity of Daniel 61 



Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations and languages 
that dwell in all the earth : Peace be multipled unto you. I make 
a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and 
fear before the God of Daniel — for He is the living God and steadfast 
forever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and 
His dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and res- 
cueth and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, 
who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. — Daniel 6 : 
25, 26, 27. 



ii 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

VI. The Light of the Gospel 74 

In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light 
shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. — John 
1 : 4, 5. 

VII. Prayer 90 

Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock 
and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, re- 
ceive th — and he that seeketh, findeth — and to him that knocketh, 
it shall be opened.— Matthew 7 : 7, 8. 

VIII. Paul on Mars' Hill 104 

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill, and said — Ye men 
of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.— 
Acts 17: 22. 

IX. The Christian Graces............. 116 

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the great- 
est of these is charity.— 1 Corinthians 13: 13. 

X. Spiritual Culture.......... 130 

But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more 
excellent way.— 1 Corinthians 12: 31. 

XI. Our Hope in Christ L.*.. ......... 145 

Christ in you the hope of glory.— Colossians 1 : 27. 

XII. Baptism 160 

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest ; for 
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways ; to 
give knowledge and salvation to the people, by the remission of 
their sins, through the tender mercy of our God :— whereby the 
day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that 
sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into 
the way of peace.— Luke 1 : 76-79. 

XIII. The Sympathy of our Lord....... 175 

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into 
the heavens,— Jesus, the Son of God, — let us hold fast our profes- 
sion. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched 
With the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto 
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to 
help in time of need. — Hebrews 4 : 14-16. 



CONTENTS. 



iii 



PAGE 



XIV. The Responsibility op the Church 188 

Happy is he who condemneth not himself in that thing which 
he alloweth. — Romans 14: 22. 

XV. The Christian's Work 201 

. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by 
faith only. — James 2 : 24. 

XVI. Manifestation of the Spirit... 218 

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the 
children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and 
joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we 
may be also glorified together. — Romans 8 : 16, 17. 

XVII. Religion Averse to Selfishness ... 230 

But He answered one of them, and said — " Friend, I do thee no 
wrong, didst thou not agree with me for a penny ?" — -Matthew 
20: 13. 

XVIII. The Vineyard..... 241 

So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, 
therefore, shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them? He shall 



come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard 
to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And 
he bebeld them, and said, What is this then that is written : The 
stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of 
the corner ? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken, 
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And 
the c iief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands 
on Him, and they feared the people; for they perceived that He 
had spoken this parable against them. — Luke 20 : 15-19. 

XIX. Chastisement a Blessing 256 

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither be 
weary of His correction, for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, 
even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.— Proverbs 3; 11, 
12. 

XX. The Glory to be Revealed 267 

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, are not wor- 
thy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
—Romans 8 : 18. 



iv 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

XXI. Perfection in Religion... 280 

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do 
not even the publicans the same? and if ye salute your brethren 
only, what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans so? 
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
perfect. — Matthew 5 : 46, 47, 48. 

XXII. Parable of the Feast 295 



And they all with one consent began to make excuse. — Luke 14 : 
18. 



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